Microsoft says it wants to go carbon negative by 2030, the Norwegian Consumer Council releases a new report highlighting how digital marketing are breaking the rules – a lot, and Twitter can’t get enough of China’s new driverless high-speed train.
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Science continues to give us humans stern warnings about the world’s carbon problem. The planet’s temperature has already risen by 1-degree centigrade and if we don’t curb emissions, and temperatures continue to climb, science tells us that the results will be catastrophic. Microsoft says that’s why it’s launching a new initiative to become carbon negative by 2030. That’s not all though – by 2050 Microsoft says it will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. The company says it will fund this in part by expanding its internal carbon fee, which has been in place since 2012 and increased last year, to start charging not only Microsoft’s direct emissions but those from our supply and value chains. It’s a bold plan, which is why the company is also introducing a new $1 billion climate innovation fund to accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies.
The advertising industry is systematically breaking the law. The unsurprising yet detailed 200-page report released by the Norwegian Consumer Council is catching fire on Reddit, as it highlights how even 20 months after the introduction of GDPR, consumers are still “pervasively tracked and profiled online” and that “the situation is completely out of control.” The report notes that digital marketing and adtech industry players must make changes to comply with European regulation, in addition to respecting consumers’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
And lastly, still trending on Twitter after several days is China’s new driverless, high-speed train that can take you from Beijing to the 2022 Winter Olympics at 200 miles per hour. To put that into perspective, that’s 108 miles in 47 minutes, down from the previous travel time of 3 hours. The train is outfitted with 5G and wireless charging. Facial recognition is used for checking-in.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing.