Harmful algal blooms are not new to freshwater lakes, but they’re getting worse. From this piece: “For the last 1 or 2 decades, we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in terms of understanding the links between climate and water quantity—things like drought and flooding and extreme rainfall,” said Anna Michalak, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science and a coauthor on the new study. (more…)
(More legible version of graphic below)
Frequent commenter Craig McManus, a solar installer in the Southeastern U.S. near the point that Alabama, Georgia and Florida meet, writes in:
The benefits of not penalizing solar energy: (more…)
Here’s an excerpt from an article in AutoNews on Nissan’s move to sell electric pick-up trucks here in the U.S., along with a few comments.
This incredibly beautiful pyroclastic cloud from last year’s eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily calls to mind an element from climate change deniers’ disinformation campaigns, namely that volcanoes release more CO2 into the atmosphere than human activities, and thus mitigation strategies are useless.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the world’s volcanoes, both on land and undersea, generate about 200 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, while our automotive and industrial activities cause some 24 billion tons of CO2 emissions every year worldwide. Human activity therefore is a little over 100 times more potent than volcanoes.
It’s possible that we’ll never know the reason that Trump ignored the Pentagon and left U.S. Kurdish allies to run or die in Northern Syria. There must have been some perceived value for him, but what could it have been? (more…)
Lobbying by Koch Industries is up by almost 20 percent compared to this time last year, according to the mandatory disclosure forms linked above. Makes sense, given that Democrats took control of the House, as the Green New Deal entered the political discourse, and while a number of clean transportation policies were considered by lawmakers, militating a huge effort to influence policy and legislation.
What else is rising, you ask? Lung disease and planetary temperatures.
As if I have any right to suggest a correction to the words of the great Stephen Hawking, I would replace “will” with “could.” As many terrors as we observe every day that derive from some blend of greed and stupidity, I refuse to believe that the fat lady has sung.
Here’s an article that claims, “En términos simples, así es como funciona: la esfera se llena de agua que magnifica los rayos del sol en más de 10.000 veces, por lo que es posible generar energía de la luna,” which I translate as, “In simple terms, it functions like this: the sphere is full of water which magnifies the rays of the sun more than 10 thousand times, making it possible to generate energy from the moon.” (more…)
This guy goes from 0 – 60 in 1.69 seconds, which sounds like it might be a somewhat painful experience for the driver.
In any case, it makes one wonder why EVs don’t take over auto racing. One would think that batteries could be swapped faster than a fuel tank refilled.
From this article: 
