Most recent 10 articles: Skeptical Science
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Jobs in wind, solar, and energy storage are booming. Is your state keeping up? - Skeptical Science (Oct 28, 2024) |
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Oct 28, 2024 · Clean energy jobs grew more than twice the rate of the overall economy in 2023 – and every state has its own piece of the story to tell.
By the end of 2023, there were over half a million jobs in wind, solar, and energy storage in the United States, according to the Department of Energy’s 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs Report. Jobs within these sectors include design, manufacturing, trade, construction, and operation of energy systems.
Just two states hold one-third of the jobs in clean electricity generation: California and Texas. The rest of the jobs were distributed across the rest of the country in unequal and sometimes unexpected ways.
Get a ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #43 - Skeptical Science (Oct 27, 2024) |
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Oct 27, 2024 · Here are the main topics extracted from the articles, along with their publishing outlets:
Climate Change and its Impacts:
Climate Policy and Politics:
Climate Solutions and Adaptation:
Scientific Research and Reporting:
Before October 20
October 20
October 21
October 22
October 23
October 24
October 25
October 26
THE ESCALATOR (free to republish) Read more ...
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Fact brief - Do volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans? - Skeptical Science (Oct 26, 2024) |
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Oct 26, 2024 · According to the U.S. Geological Survey, volcanoes emit around 180-440 million tons of CO2 annually. In contrast, human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels, emitted 41.5 billion tons of CO2 in 2022—over 100 times more.
Volcanoes are part of the Earth’s slow carbon cycle, where carbon is gradually recycled between the Earth’s mantle and atmosphere over millions of years. Volcanic CO2 is eventually reabsorbed by the weathering of rocks and ocean absorption, keeping the carbon cycle in balance over long timeframes.
Human activity, however, is releasing carbon at a rate far beyond what the natural carbon cycle can handle, overwhelming the ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #43 2024 - Skeptical Science (Oct 24, 2024) |
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Oct 24, 2024 · The rate of global sea level rise doubled during the past three decades, Hamlington et al., Communications Earth & Environment:
The rise in globally averaged sea level—or global mean sea level—is one of the most unambiguous indicators of climate change. Over the past three decades, satellites have provided continuous, accurate measurements of sea level on near-global scales. Here, we show that since satellites began observing sea surface heights in 1993 until the end of 2023, global mean sea level has risen by 111 mm. In addition, the rate of global mean sea level rise over those three decades has increased from ~2.1 mm/year in 1993 to ... Read more ...
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Why widening highways doesn’t reduce traffic congestion - Skeptical Science (Oct 23, 2024) |
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Oct 23, 2024 · California prides itself on its climate leadership. And the state’s work on transportation – its largest source of emissions – is no exception; its electric vehicle policies have been adopted by other states across the country. Sacramento lawmakers have also taken ambitious steps to reduce car use altogether, developing regulations aimed at reshaping communities to encourage walking, biking, and taking public transportation.
But on-the-ground reality often doesn’t live up to this vision. In particular, communities throughout the state continue to invest heavily in highway expansion projects that undermine efforts to change how people get around. Because ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #42 - Skeptical Science (Oct 20, 2024) |
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Oct 20, 2024 · We've accidentally taken on god-like powers. But we're more like Greek gods; our efforts seemingly end in hubristic folly as much as they do acts of virtue. The Greeks wrote fables of gods as commentary on human nature and we remain obedient to this plot device— but at scale and type now uncomfortably close to the literal as opposed to metaphorical text of these ancient stories. Our human nature is now a seemingly inexorable force of nature; we don't seem to know how to control what we've become, what we've created.
If human nature rather than technological prowess is the root cause of our problem, it seems reasonable that better understanding of human nature rather than ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #42 2024 - Skeptical Science (Oct 17, 2024) |
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Oct 17, 2024 · The influence of partisan news on climate mitigation support: An investigation into the mediating role of perceived risk and efficacy, Choi & Hart, Risk Analysis:
Perceptions of efficacy play a central role in motivating people to engage in climate actions. However, there has been little investigation into how different climate efficacy beliefs are formed and how they may be associated with support for climate mitigation policies. This study, based on the motivated control framework, examines how risk perceptions may differentially be associated with four types of efficacy constructs (self-efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, collective efficacy, and collective outcome ... Read more ...
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Wanted: Better housing to help people stay cool on a hotter planet - Skeptical Science (Oct 16, 2024) |
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Oct 16, 2024 · It was 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47°C) in Tunisia in July, yet our colleague Manel Ben Khelifa could not turn on the air conditioning “because the electricity grid has been shut down,” she explained.
“The power company is trying to conserve energy during peak periods by doubling electricity prices to discourage people from using air conditioning, but it’s not working,” Ben Khelifa told us during a heat wave in July 2024.
“It’s so hot, people would rather turn off anything but the air conditioning,” she said. “So then the power company turns off the power. It’s OK for young people like me but for my babies and ... Read more ...
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Life in the Appalachians once felt 'untouchable.’ Then Helene struck. - Skeptical Science (Oct 15, 2024) |
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Oct 15, 2024 · You could say James Guill has been running from hurricanes for his whole life.
The New Orleans native was just two years old when Hurricane Katrina swallowed his city in 2005 and became the most costly hurricane in U.S. history, claiming 1,833 lives.
During and after the storm, Guill’s family evacuated and sheltered in Virginia for two months. Then they returned, salvaged their house, and spent nearly two more decades – enduring other life-threatening storms and evacuations – at sea level.
Guill’s mother, Terenia Urban Guill, calls her son a Katrina baby, in the same way young parents today call their 2020 kids COVID babies: the ... Read more ...
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Why have hurricanes gone crazy? - Skeptical Science (Oct 14, 2024) |
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Oct 14, 2024 · Have there been other years where multiple hurricanes hit Florida? That is one of the questions I am now getting. The answer is yes: in 2004, for instance.
The summer of 2004 was when four hurricanes made landfall in Florida, and the question was whether there was a human global warming role in the activity and thus the damage. To me it was obvious that there was.
I had worked extensively on climate change, and had connected the increases in sea surface temperatures, which were clearly and demonstrably linked to global warming, to increases in water vapor in the atmosphere.
This link is strong and physically based: over the oceans, where there is ample water at the ... Read more ...
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