Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: Atmospheric rivers are hitting the Arctic more often, and increasingly melting its Sea Ice

By Pengfei Zhang, Penn State | – (The Conversation) – Atmospheric rivers, those long, powerful streams of moisture in the sky, are becoming more frequent in the Arctic, and they’re helping to drive dramatic shrinking of the Arctic’s sea ice cover. While less ice might have some benefits – it would allow more shipping in […]

Climate Crisis

“Some say the World will End in Fire, some say in Ice”: Life in a Climate-Destabilized California

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was January 1983 and raining in San Francisco. The summer before, I’d moved here from Portland, Oregon, a city known for its perpetual gray drizzles and, on the 60-odd days a year when the sun deigns to shine, dazzling displays of greenery. My girlfriend had spent a year convincing me […]

Climate Crisis

Western Wildfires destroyed 246% more Homes and Buildings over the past Decade – Scientists explain Why

The Conversation

By Philip Higuera, University of Montana; Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado Boulder, Maxwell Cook, University of Colorado Boulder; and Natasha Stavros, University of Colorado Boulder | – (The Conversation) – It can be tempting to think that the recent wildfire disasters in communities across the West were unlucky, one-off events, but evidence is accumulating that […]

Climate Crisis

Rooftop Solar Soared 40% (3 Gigawatts) in Germany Last Year, as Families Flee Unstable Russian Fossil Fuels

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Solar PV expansion in Germany jumped 28 percent in 2022, with 7.2 gigawatts (GW) of new installations added to the grid in the past year, according to preliminary figures compiled by industry federation BSW Solar. Roof-mounted installations for family homes increased by 40 percent […]

Climate Crisis

Edwards Air Force Base Near LA to host Largest Solar-plus-storage Project in the World

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California, near Los Angeles and San Bernardino, is now home to the largest solar power array on any Air Force base in the country, as of this past week. Indeed, with a goal of “1,118 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) and 2,165 megawatts […]

Climate Crisis

In 4th Quarter, for first time Hybrid and Electric Vehicles outsold Diesel and Gasoline Cars in the European Union

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the European Union in the fourth quarter of 2022, for the first time in history diesel- and gasoline-powered automobiles with internal combustion engines (ICE) were a minority of vehicles purchased. Hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric (BEV) cars together outsold the ICE models, according to DW. The European average was […]

Arctic

‘Blue marble’: how half a Century of Climate Change has altered the Face of the Earth

The Conversation

By Robert Poole, University of Central Lancashire; Nick Pepin, University of Portsmouth, and Oliver Gruner, University of Portsmouth | – In December 1972, Nasa’s final Apollo mission (Apollo 17) took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth. Many, including science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, had expected that the sight of Earth from […]

Climate Crisis

Minnesota House passes Bill mandating Move to Carbon-Free Electricity by 2040

Minnesota Reformer

By Michelle Griffith | – ( The Minnesota Reformer ) – The Minnesota House passed a bill late Thursday that would force Minnesota utilities to move to entirely carbon-free electricity by 2040, after hours of debate that sometimes strayed far off topic. House Republicans sought to derail the bill and score points with over 30 […]

Climate Crisis

Exxon Scientists Accurately Forecast Climate Change back in the 1970s – What if it hadn’t been Covered up and We had Acted

The Conversation

By John Grant, Sheffield Hallam University | – Writers of speculative- and science-fiction often identify a key point in time and explore how a seemingly insignificant event might change the path of humanity. One of these moments came in the 1970s when oil giant Exxon chose to ignore its own commissioned research on the impact […]