Articles on or after 4/10/2024: New York Times - Climate Section
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'Climate-Controlled’ Sausage? Courts Crack Down on 'Greenwashing’ - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 12) |
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Apr 12 · From airlines to pork sellers, corporate brands face legal and regulatory challenges for misleading the public with lofty climate claims.
A “climate-controlled” sausage. New trousers labeled “recycled.” A “sustainable” airline ticket.
More and more, big brands are using taglines like these to cater to their green-minded customers. And more and more, they are under fire from courts and regulators for making climate promises they can’t keep.
This year, this dynamic is playing out in several countries.
In Denmark, a national court in March told Danish Crown, the country’s biggest pork producer, that it’s misleading to label its pork “climate-controlled,” though ... | By Somini Sengupta Read more ...
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'Discomfort May Increase’: Asia’s Heat Wave Scorches Hundreds of Millions - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · April is typically hot in South and Southeast Asia, but temperatures this month have been unusually high.
Saif Hasnat reported from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Mike Ives from Seoul.
Hundreds of millions of people in South and Southeast Asia were suffering on Monday from a punishing heat wave that has forced schools to close, disrupted agriculture, and raised the risk of heat strokes and other health complications.
The weather across the region in April is generally hot, and comes before Asia’s annual summer monsoon, which dumps rain on parched soil. But this April’s temperatures have so far been unusually high.
In Bangladesh, where schools and universities are ... | By Saif Hasnat and Mike Ives Read more ...
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'Narco-deforestation’ and the future of the Amazon - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 11) |
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Apr 11 · Subscriber-only Newsletter
Climate Forward
The fate of Colombia’s rainforest may lay in the hands of a rebel group linked to drugs and illegal mining.
There’s a struggle for law and order in many of the world’s tropical forests, and nature is losing.
Last week, I wrote about the major progress Colombia made in 2023, slashing deforestation rates by 49 percent in a single year. But this week, we learned the trend reversed significantly in the first quarter of this year. Preliminary figures show tree loss was up 40 percent since the start of the year, Colombia’s Minister of Environment, Susana Muhamad, told reporters on Monday.
Why have things changed so ... | By Manuela Andreoni Read more ...
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Al Gore Thinks Trump Will Lose and Climate Activists Will Triumph - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 15) |
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Apr 15 · Mr. Gore spoke at a climate leadership conference hosted by his nonprofit organization.
Former Vice President Al Gore was in New York City over the weekend for a leadership training convened by the Climate Reality Project, his nonprofit organization.
On Saturday, before thousands of attendees, Mr. Gore highlighted mounting climate perils but also spoke of progress. He slammed fossil fuel companies for ramping up plastics production and promoting technology to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which he called “utterly preposterous.”
Afterward, Mr. Gore explained in an interview why he was not surprised that major oil and gas companies have walked back their ... | By Cara Buckley Read more ...
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Biden Administration Announces Rule to Strengthen Protection of Public Lands - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The measure elevates conservation in a number of ways, including by creating new leases for the restoration of degraded areas.
The Biden administration on Thursday announced a new federal rule for the nation’s sprawling public lands that puts conservation on par with activities like grazing, energy development and mining.
The new rule relates to areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, some 245 million acres that make up a tenth of the country’s land, mainly in the West. It elevates conservation in a number of ways, including by creating two new kinds of leases for the restoration of degraded lands and for offsetting environmental damage.
These lands have ... | By Catrin Einhorn Read more ...
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Biden Administration Raises Costs to Drill and Mine on Public Lands - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 12) |
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Apr 12 · For the first time since 1920, the government has raised the rates that companies pay. The fossil fuel industry says it will hurt the economy.
The Biden administration on Friday made it more expensive for fossil fuel companies to pull oil, gas and coal from public lands, raising royalty rates for the first time in 100 years in a bid to end bargain basement fees enjoyed by one of the country’s most profitable industries.
The government also increased more than tenfold the amount of the bonds that companies must secure before they start drilling.
The new rules are among a series of environmental regulations that are being pushed out as President Biden, in the last ... | By Coral Davenport Read more ...
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Biden Earth Day Event Will Try to Reach Young Voters, a Crucial Bloc - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · At a national park in Virginia on Monday, the president will point to investments in clean energy and appear with future members of his American Climate Corps.
Reporting from Washington
President Biden will travel to a national park in Virginia on Monday, Earth Day, to spotlight his clean energy investments, with an eye on bolstering support among young voters disillusioned with their choices for the 2024 election.
Against the backdrop of the park, Prince William Forest, Mr. Biden will announce $7 billion in grants to fund solar power for hundreds of thousands of homes in primarily disadvantaged communities, according to the White House. He will be joined by future ... | By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Brad Plumer Read more ...
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Biden Shields Millions of Acres of Alaskan Wilderness From Drilling and Mining - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · The administration has blocked a proposed industrial road needed to mine copper in the middle of the state, and has banned oil drilling on 13 million acres in the North Slope.
The Biden administration expanded federal protections across millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness on Friday, blocking oil, gas and mining operations in some of the most unspoiled land in the country.
The Interior Department said it would deny a permit for an industrial road that the state of Alaska had wanted to build through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in order to reach a large copper deposit with an estimated value of $7.5 billion. It also announced it would ban drilling ... | By Lisa Friedman Read more ...
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Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New Milestone - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · The chart shows monthly numbers of carbon dioxide molecules per million molecules of dry air. Because of seasonal differences, levels are higher in May than in August.
Carbon dioxide acts like Earth’s thermostat: The more of it in the air, the more the planet warms.
In 2023, global levels of the greenhouse gas rose to 419 parts per million, around 50 percent more than before the Industrial Revolution. That means there are roughly 50 percent more carbon dioxide molecules in the air than there were in 1750.
As carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere, it traps heat and warms the planet.
The chart shows the change in global surface temperature relative to ... | By Aatish Bhatia Read more ...
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China’s Cities Are Sinking Below Sea Level, Study Finds - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Development and groundwater pumping are causing land subsidence and heightening the risks of sea level rise.
As China’s cities grow, they are also sinking.
An estimated 16 percent of the country’s major cities are losing more than 10 millimeters of elevation per year and nearly half are losing more than 3 millimeters per year, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
These amounts may seem small, but they accumulate quickly. In 100 years, a quarter of China’s urban coastal land could sit below sea level because of a combination of subsidence and sea level rise, according to the study.
“It’s a national problem,” said Robert Nicholls, a ... | By Delger Erdenesanaa Read more ...
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Chinese Export Surge Clouds U.S. Hopes of a Domestic Solar Boom - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · The decision by a Massachusetts solar company to abandon plans to build a $1.4 billion U.S. factory highlights the risks amid a flood of Chinese clean energy exports.
Reporting from Washington
Less than a year ago, CubicPV, which manufactures components for solar panels, announced that it had secured more than $100 million in financing to build a $1.4 billion factory in the United States. The company planned to produce silicon wafers, a critical part of the technology that allows solar panels to turn sunlight into electrical energy.
The Massachusetts-based company called the investment a “direct result of the long-term industrial policy contained within the ... | By Alan Rappeport Read more ...
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Climate Doom Is Out. 'Apocalyptic Optimism’ Is In. - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Focusing on disaster hasn’t changed the planet’s trajectory. Will a more upbeat approach show a way forward?
Credit...Photo Illustration by Doug Chayka
The philanthropist Kathryn Murdoch has prioritized donations to environmental causes for more than a decade. She has, she said, a deep understanding of how inhospitable the planet will become if climate change is not addressed. And she and her colleagues have spent years trying to communicate that.
“We have been screaming,” she said. “But screaming only gets you so far.”
This was on a morning in early spring. Murdoch and Ari Wallach, an author, producer and self-proclaimed futurist, had just released their new ... | By Alexis Soloski Read more ...
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Driven by China, Coal Plants Made a Comeback in 2023 - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 10) |
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Apr 10 · The country, along with India, is still building power stations that run on coal. Elsewhere, retirements of older plants have slowed.
Global capacity to generate power from coal, one of the most polluting fossil fuels, grew in 2023, driven by a wave of new plants coming online in China that coincided with a slowing pace of retirements of older plants in the United States and Europe.
The findings came in an annual report by Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit organization that tracks energy projects around the world.
Coal’s heavy greenhouse gas footprint has prompted calls for it to be rapidly phased out as a source of energy, and all of the world’s countries have ... | By Max Bearak Read more ...
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Drought Pushes Millions Into 'Acute Hunger’ in Southern Africa - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The disaster, intensified by El Niño, is devastating communities across several countries, killing crops and livestock and sending food prices soaring.
An estimated 20 million people in southern Africa are facing what the United Nations calls “acute hunger” as one of the worst droughts in more than four decades shrivels crops, decimates livestock and, after years of rising food prices brought on by pandemic and war, spikes the price of corn, the region’s staple crop.
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all declared national emergencies.
It is a bitter foretaste of what a warming climate is projected to bring to a region that’s likely to be acutely affected by climate ... | By Somini Sengupta and Manuela Andreoni Read more ...
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Dubai’s Extraordinary Flooding: Here’s What to Know - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Images of a saturated desert metropolis startled the world, prompting talk of cloud seeding, climate change and designing cities for intensified weather.
Scenes of flood-ravaged neighborhoods in one of the planet’s driest regions have stunned the world this week. Heavy rains in the United Arab Emirates and Oman submerged cars, clogged highways and killed at least 21 people. Flights out of Dubai’s airport, a major global hub, were severely disrupted.
The downpours weren’t a freak event - forecasters anticipated the storms several days out and issued warnings. But they were certainly unusual. Here’s what to know.
Heavy rain there is rare, but not unheard-of.
On ... | By Raymond Zhong Read more ...
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Four Wild Ways to Save the Koala (That Just Might Work) - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 15) |
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Apr 15 · To protect Australia’s iconic animals, scientists are experimenting with vaccine implants, probiotics, tree-planting drones and solar-powered tracking tags.
A veterinary nurse treats a koala infected with chlamydia at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Currumbin, Australia.Credit...
Photographs and Video by Chang W. Lee
It was spring in Queensland, Australia, a season when many wild animals find themselves in trouble, and the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital was a blur of fur and feathers.
A groggy black swan emerged from the X-ray room, head swaying on its long neck. A flying fox wore a tiny anesthetic mask. An injured rainbow lorikeet squawked in its cage. (“Very ... | By Emily Anthes Read more ...
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Heat-Related E.R. Visits Rose in 2023, C.D.C. Study Finds - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Reporting from Washington
The rate of emergency room visits caused by heat illness increased significantly last year in large swaths of the country compared with the previous five years, according to a study published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly 120,000 heat-related emergency room visits were recorded in the surveillance program last year, with more than 90 percent of them occurring between May and September, the researchers found.
The highest rate of visits occurred in a region encompassing Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Overall, the study also found that men and people between the ages of 18 and 64 ... | By Noah Weiland Read more ...
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Is Online Shopping Bad for the Planet? - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In theory, getting deliveries can be more efficient than driving to the store. But you may still want to think before you add to cart.
Credit...Naomi Anderson-Subryan
Dionne Searcey is part of a rotating cast of Climate reporters and special guest writers who will answer your burning climate questions.
The convenience of online shopping is hard to beat. But it uses a lot of energy and resources and can lead to more waste.
Transportation needed for online shopping spews greenhouse emissions. Three billion trees are cut down every year to produce packaging for all kinds of things, e-commerce included, according to some estimates. The data centers needed to ... | By Dionne Searcey Read more ...
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Ocean Heat Has Shattered Records for More Than a Year. What’s Happening? - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 10) |
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Apr 10 · There have been record temperatures every day for more than a year. Scientists are investigating what’s behind the extraordinary measurements.
The ocean has now broken temperature records every day for more than a year. And so far, 2024 has continued 2023’s trend of beating previous records by wide margins. In fact, the whole planet has been hot for months, according to many different data sets.
“There’s no ambiguity about the data,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “So really, it’s a question of attribution.”
Understanding what specific physical processes are behind these temperature records will ... | By Delger Erdenesanaa Read more ...
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R.F.K. Jr.’s Environmental Colleagues Urge Him to Drop Presidential Bid - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Nearly 50 leaders and activists who worked with Mr. Kennedy at an environmental nonprofit group will run ads calling on him to “Honor our planet, drop out.”
As an independent candidate for the White House, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims he would be the “best environment president in American history,” drawing on his past as a crusading lawyer who went after polluters in New York.
But dozens of Mr. Kennedy’s former colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council are calling on him to withdraw from the race, in full-page advertisements sponsored by the group’s political arm that are expected to appear in newspapers in six swing states on Sunday.
Separately, a dozen ... | By Lisa Friedman Read more ...
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Rainstorms Kill More Than 130 Across Afghanistan and Pakistan - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Pakistani officials warned of more flooding and heavy rainfall next week, stoking fears of a particularly brutal monsoon season to come.
By Zia ur-Rehman and Christina Goldbaum
Zia ur-Rehman reported from Islamabad and Christina Goldbaum from London.
A deluge of unseasonably heavy rains has lashed Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent days, killing more than 130 people across both countries, with the authorities forecasting more flooding and rainfall, and some experts pointing to climate change as the cause.
In Afghanistan, at least 70 people have been killed in flash floods and other weather-related incidents, while more than 2,600 homes have been destroyed or ... | By The New York Times Read more ...
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Scotland Made Big Climate Pledges. Now They’re 'Out of Reach.’ - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Despite significant progress, Scotland was falling short on cutting vehicle emissions, switching to heat pumps and even restoring peatland, the government said.
Climate promises are hard to keep. Scotland is the latest, perhaps most surprising example.
Scotland, an early industrial power and coal-burning behemoth, was also an early adopter of an ambitious and legally binding government target to slow down climate change. It had promised to pare back its emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases by 75 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
This week, its Net Zero minister, Màiri McAllan, said that goal was now “out of reach.” She said Scotland, which operates ... | By Somini Sengupta Read more ...
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Tell Us: Has Elon Musk’s Behavior Affected How You View Tesla? - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 12) |
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Apr 12 · Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has turned off many people with polarizing remarks on social media, and it may be affecting the automaker’s sales.
Endorsing an antisemitic post on X. Withholding Starlink satellite internet service from Ukraine to prevent a drone attack on Russian forces. Reposting conspiracy theorists who claim that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are part of a plot to increase the number of people who vote Democrat.
Elon Musk’s behavior and public statements have clearly offended many people, especially left-leaning consumers who are the most likely to buy an electric vehicle.
As a business reporter who covers Tesla, the ... | By Jack Ewing Read more ...
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The Biden Administration Raised the Rent to Drill on Public Lands. Here’s What to Know. - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 12) |
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Apr 12 · The fossil fuel industry says higher rates will harm the economy. The administration says they will pay for the environmental costs of drilling and mining.
The Biden administration raised the royalty rates that fossil fuel companies pay the government in order to drill and mine on public lands, the first time since 1920 that those fees have increased. And it raised by tenfold the size of bonds that companies must secure before they can drill, the first time they went up since 1960.
One way to think about it is this: the nation’s largest property owner, the federal government, effectively charges rent to oil and gas companies that exploit public land for private profit. ... | By Coral Davenport Read more ...
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The Widest-Ever Global Coral Crisis Will Hit Within Weeks, Scientists Say - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 15) |
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Apr 15 · Rising sea temperatures around the planet have caused a bleaching event that is expected to be the most extensive on record.
The world’s coral reefs are in the throes of a global bleaching event caused by extraordinary ocean temperatures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and international partners announced Monday.
It is the fourth such global event on record and is expected to affect more reefs than any other. Bleaching occurs when corals become so stressed that they lose the symbiotic algae they need to survive. Bleached corals can recover, but if the water surrounding them is too hot for too long, they die.
Coral reefs are vital ecosystems: ... | By Catrin Einhorn Read more ...
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Three Places Changing Quickly to Fight Climate Change - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Paris is becoming a city of bikes. Across China, people are snapping up $5,000 electric cars. On Earth Day, a look at a few bright spots for emission reductions.
Glaciers are shrinking, coral reefs are in crisis and last year was the hottest on record. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, have passed a dangerous new threshold as people continue to burn fossil fuels. Is anyplace making progress on climate change?
The short answer is: It’s complicated, but yes.
In South America, one country has pivoted in less than a decade to generating almost all its electricity from a diverse mix of renewables. In China, an electric car that costs ... | By Delger Erdenesanaa Read more ...
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What Can 'Green Islam’ Achieve in the World’s Largest Muslim Country? - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Clerics in Indonesia are issuing fatwas, retrofitting mosques and imploring congregants to help turn the tide against climate change.
Inspecting solar panels that provide electrical power to Istiqlal Mosque in December in Jakarta, Indonesia.Credit...
Sui-Lee Wee traveled to three cities in Indonesia to report on this movement.
The faithful gathered in an imposing modernist building, thousands of men in skullcaps and women in veils sitting shoulder to shoulder. Their leader took to his perch and delivered a stark warning.
“Our fatal shortcomings as human beings have been that we treat the earth as just an object,” Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar said. “The greedier ... | By Sui-Lee Wee Read more ...
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Why Heat Pumps Are the Future, and How Your Home Could Use One - New York Times - Climate Section (Apr 14) |
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Apr 14 · The highly efficient devices are the darlings of the environmental movement. Here’s why.
Heat pumps, which both warm and cool buildings and are powered by electricity, have been touted as the answer to curbing greenhouse gas emissions produced by homes, businesses and office buildings, which are responsible for about one-third of the emissions in New York State.
But how do they work? How much do they cost? Is New York ready for them? And can they really help solve the climate crisis? Here are some heat pump basics.
Currently, we mostly burn fossil fuels to produce heat. This causes pollution. Heat pumps are all-electric.
Even though most electricity still ... | By Hilary Howard Read more ...
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