Blog entries about climate change
In the past I have written about problems that are exacerbated by climate change, such as wildfires, storms, hurricanes, and extreme winter weather. Droughts are another such problem, and now it seems that the problem is moving east.[1] The explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell observed in 1879 that the Read more…
I don’t make stock recommendations on this website,[1] so that is not what this is. But I recently learned about a business that is aggressively trying to make money by tackling climate change, with a goal of completely eliminating the use of fossil fuels in its operations by 2030—a goal Read more…
Eight years ago, I wrote about the uncertainty surrounding how clouds might impact climate change: Higher temperatures and warmer ocean water will increase evaporation, which should result in more clouds. But clouds have two opposite effects. Because they consist of water vapor—a potent greenhouse gas—high, thin clouds trap the sun’s Read more…
California wildfires are nothing new, but this year’s fires were far worse than most, costing dozens of people their lives and destroying thousands of houses and other structures. Many reasons have been offered, but there is no question that climate change played a significant role. Climate change is making the Read more…
Concrete is everywhere in our modern society—roads, bridges, buildings, dams, sewers, parking lots, etc. The foundation of your home or apartment building is probably made of concrete. But producing all of that concrete requires a lot of fossil fuels, generating a lot of carbon dioxide, a potent and plentiful greenhouse Read more…
One of the many ways climate change is making our world more dangerous is through the spreading of diseases by mosquitoes. They are responsible for expanding the reach of a variety of diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis. The Read more…
We recently witnessed the death, destruction, and devastation caused by two hurricanes, Helene and Milton. Before that we had Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane in history with winds of 165 mph. The five years from 2017 to 2021 saw more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes make landfall on Read more…
Hurricanes form over oceans and are fed by warm water, enabling them to intensify. When they come ashore, they weaken. Almost four years ago I wrote about how climate change helps hurricanes last longer once they leave their oceanic incubator. Hurricane Helene is a perfect example. Helene made landfall near Read more…
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued ninety disaster and emergency declarations in 2022, and 114 in 2023.[1] So far in 2024, FEMA has issued 100 such declarations—and we still have four-and-a-half months to go, including much of the hurricane season. Fifty-eight of these emergency declarations have been for severe Read more…
The Brooks Range is a sparsely populated mountain range located north of the Arctic Circle in northern Alaska and northwestern Canada. Named for geologist Alfred Hulse Brooks in 1925, these mountains stretch about 700 miles from west to east. The rugged Dalton Highway, which runs from near Fairbanks to Deadhorse Read more…