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…
Ice in the Arctic is receding by about ten percent every ten years due to climate change as well as the fact that the Arctic is warming faster than the Earth as a whole. That spells disaster for polar bears, which live exclusively in the Arctic and are now considered Read more…
Recent cutbacks in oil exports by Saudi Arabia and Russia. The war in Ukraine. War between Israel and Hamas. Unrest in the Middle East. These are the primary factors that are causing oil prices to rise, which in turn causes gasoline prices to increase. The law of supply and demand Read more…
What if we could increase marine food sources for people while also fighting climate change and preserving—or even increasing—marine biodiversity?[1] That is what Enric Sala, a marine ecologist, wants to do, and it appears to work. Sala wants to set aside approximately 30 percent of the most biodiverse ocean and Read more…