Most recent 40 articles: Heated World
|
Nobel Prize-winning economist calls for climate tax on billionaires - Heated World  (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · For the first time, the world’s most powerful countries are considering a proposal that would tax the super rich and send the money directly to the people on the front lines of the climate crisis. The proposed climate tax is the brainchild of Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo, who presented it to the Group of 20 summit in Washington D.C. last Wednesday. Duflo suggested taxing global corporations and the world’s top billionaires to raise money for climate adaptation in countries that are most impacted by the climate crisis. The funds would be directly sent to the poorest individuals in those countries to help them prepare for climate disasters. “Richer citizens ... Read more ... |
|
|
An Earth Day response from Al Sharpton - Heated World  (Apr 22) |
|
Apr 22 · Last week, HEATED reported that Al Sharpton used his annual National Action Network (NAN) civil rights convention to spread fossil fuel industry propaganda to Black communities. HEATED reported that Sharpton personally introduced a panel titled “Affordable energy is a civil rights issue,” during which four paid gas industry spokespeople falsely told attendees that methane gas is a “clean” fuel; that a net-zero future is primarily being pushed by rich people; and that access to methane should be seen as a civil rights issue.Our article featured reaction from several climate justice activists - including former EPA environmental justice chief Mustafa Santiago Ali - who strongly ... Read more ... |
|
|
The only way to save coral reefs - Heated World  (Apr 18) |
|
Apr 18 · The world’s coral reefs are in bad shape. On Monday, two major scientific bodies announced that record-breaking ocean heat is causing a worldwide coral bleaching event. It’s the fourth-ever mass bleaching event on record, and the second in the last decade. This current global bleaching is expected to be the worst ever recorded, endangering coral from the Caribbean to the South Pacific. I’ve been following this latest mass coral bleaching with concern since Monday. And through it all, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of something one of the world’s premier coral reef scientists told me years ago. We were chatting for a 2022 story about the world’s most climate-threatened ... Read more ... |
|
|
“Reprehensible”: Fossil fuel industry infiltrates civil rights convention - Heated World  (Apr 16) |
|
Apr 16 · TODAY’S ISSUE, IN BRIEF… Al Sharpton invited paid fossil fuel industry representatives to speak at his annual civil rights conference. Sharpton’s group did not disclose representatives’ deep financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. Representatives characterized themselves as former lawmakers speaking “truth to power.” Representatives argued that expanding methane gas is a civil rights issue; that methane gas is clean energy; and that methane gas is more affordable than renewable energy. Climate justice advocates, who were not represented on the panel, balked. “The fossil fuel industry puts Black lives in danger,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali. “Energy ... Read more ... |
|
|
Big Oil is quietly paying state legal officials to kill climate litigation - Heated World  (Apr 11) |
|
Apr 11 · At the Society of Environmental Journalists conference this year, we heard about a promising legal case that experts believe actually has a real shot at holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for climate change. City & County of Honolulu v. Sunoco LP is the first climate liability lawsuit against fossil fuel companies to be greenlit for trial, expected later this year. In it, Honolulu accuses several oil and gas giants of misleading its citizens about the environmental consequences of fossil fuels for decades, and seeks financial compensation for past, present, and future damages to the region. As a trial comes closer, however, we learned that the lawsuit is facing ... Read more ... |
|
|
A guide to electric car misinformation (part 2) - Heated World  (Apr 3) |
|
Apr 3 · Last week, we talked about the recent uptick in politically-motivated electric vehicle misinformation, and went through some of the most prevalent myths and misleading claims about EV policy. This week, we’ll be going through some of the most prevalent myths and misleading claims that power-seekers and profit-seekers are spreading about EVs in general. Financially-motivated EV misinformation comes from both sides of the aisle (the lane?). Industries that see EVs as a threat exaggerate their harms in a bid to get you to hate EVs. And industries that profit from EVs greenwash their benefits in a bid to get you to love EVs. Most often, you can recognize EV ... Read more ... |
|
|
GOP congresswoman blames Green New Deal for bridge collapse - Heated World  (Mar 28) |
|
Mar 28 · Republicans have blamed the Green New Deal for the war in Ukraine. They’ve blamed it for inflation and striking U.S. workers. They’ve blamed it for blackouts and for coronavirus aid delays. And now they’re blaming the Green New Deal for the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Read more ... |
|
|
A guide to electric car misinformation (part 1) - Heated World  (Mar 27) |
|
Mar 27 · The closer we get to the 2024 presidential election, the more sketchy information you’re going to hear about electric cars. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have decided to make electric cars central to their campaigns. Biden is doing this by promoting his administration’s efforts to expand EV production and ownership, and Trump is doing this by attacking those efforts. GOP polling has shown that attacking electric vehicle policy has been “amazing” for Republicans, former Trump energy advisor Michael McKenna recently told the New York Times. And Biden’s EV policies have drawn praise from both green groups and the United Auto Workers union - two important political ... Read more ... |
|
|
Boeing's big green disaster - Heated World  (Mar 21) |
|
Mar 21 · If you’ve ever used Google Flights to buy plane tickets, you might have noticed a green symbol telling you which flights have less greenhouse gas emissions. These flights are the result of a Google algorithm that predicts per-passenger carbon emissions. And there are two planes that pop up over and over again in the results: One is the European Airbus A320neo, and the other is the Boeing 737 Max 9. The 737 Max 9 is now infamous for an incident in January, when the door blew off an Alaska Airlines flight, exposing passengers to the outside air at 16,000 feet. The culprit was several bolts that hadn’t been attached, according to the preliminary findings of several ongoing ... Read more ... |
|
|
“Meat and dairy should be suing oil and gas” - Heated World  (Mar 12) |
|
Mar 12 · Big Meat is looking more like Big Oil every day. A new study published in the journal Climatic Change finds that, much like fossil fuel industry, the animal agriculture industry has been creating and funding academic research institutions that claim the world doesn’t need to consume less of their products; that it’s not necessary to preserve a safe and livable climate. That is, to be clear, not what non-industry funded research says. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - whose findings are compiled by hundreds of climate scientists and signed off on by 195 countries - has warned that the industry-preferred strategy of “technical fixes only” is not moving fast enough ... Read more ... |
|
|
How corporate America won the fight to keep its pollution secret - Heated World  (Mar 8) |
|
Mar 8 · One of the biggest challenges in holding corporations responsible for the climate crisis is that we have no idea how much they’re polluting. And corporate America is fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way. Sure, there are corporations that try to earn green points by voluntarily disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions - ExxonMobil is one, Walmart is another. But currently, under federal law, there is no rule requiring companies to accurately calculate or divulge their full impact on the planet. Nor is there a rule saying that companies have to report how the climate crisis is impacting their business, and hurting their bottom line. All that was set to change when ... Read more ... |
|
|
Big Meat is lying about sustainability. These media outlets are helping. - Heated World  (Mar 6) |
|
Mar 6 · First, Letitia James took on Donald Trump. Now, she’s taking on the meat industry. In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed last week, the New York Attorney General accused JBS USA - the American arm of the world’s largest meatpacking company - of “fraudulent and illegal environmental marketing practices” surrounding its claims of sustainability. Specifically, the lawsuit claims JBS USA’s advertisements promising to reach “net zero emissions by 2040” are fabrications, designed to trick environmentally conscious consumers into purchasing an environmentally harmful product. It’s not the first time Brazil-based JBS has been accused of misleading the public with climate ads. In June ... Read more ... |
|
|
Plastic recycling is a scam - Heated World  (Mar 1) |
|
Mar 1 · The plastic pollution crisis is so severe some experts say that it is now on par with the climate crisis. It shows no sign of slowing down, with plastic pollution expected to double by 2030. Over the next two decades, the amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons, the same weight of 3 million blue whales. But the plastics industry wants to assure the public that it has a solution. Last month, the industry group America’s Plastic Makers released a national TV commercial claiming recycling programs are addressing pollution. Recycling plastic is “making the planet cleaner and healthier,” the ad said, alongside images of windmills and solar panels. It said ... Read more ... |
|
|
There's no such thing as a “climate-friendly” Super Bowl - Heated World  (Feb 13) |
|
Feb 13 · It’s time to have a conversation about the word “climate-friendly.” Like a football in the Super Bowl, it gets thrown around a lot. In recent months, journalists have used the word “climate-friendly” to describe reusable Stanley cups, carbon-neutral Apple Watches, and aviation powered by biofuels. It’s been used to describe investments in companies that have pledged to go net zero. And it’s been used to describe ice cream made with milk from cows fed special burp-reducing feed. If you watched the Super Bowl this year, apparently, that was “climate-friendly” too - or at least, the most “climate-friendly” the Super Bowl ever been. That’s because, for the first time, the ... Read more ... |
|
|
“The Daily” runs a greenwashing BP ad - Heated World  (Feb 6) |
|
Feb 6 · In 2021, in response to growing concerns about the fossil fuel industry’s role in climate delay, The New York Times pledged to ban oil and gas companies from sponsoring “its climate newsletter, its climate summit or its podcast 'The Daily.’” But it appears there are limits to that pledge. Because last week, The Daily aired an ad from BP touting the petroleum giant’s climate credentials. Here’s what some of The Daily’s millions of listeners heard at the beginning of Wednesday’s episode: BP added more than $70 billion to the US economy last year by making investments from coast to coast. Investments like acquiring America's largest biogas producer, Archaea Energy, ... Read more ... |
|
|
Understanding Biden's LNG decision - Heated World  (Feb 1) |
|
Feb 1 · There’s a lot of misinformation floating around about the Biden Administration’s decision on Friday to temporarily pause Department of Energy permit approvals for new liquified natural gas, or LNG, export terminals. Most of this misinformation is coming from Republicans and the fossil fuel industry, but some Democrats and environmental groups are stretching the truth too. Republicans are fear-mongering about how awful Biden’s decision is for the economy and energy security, and Democrats are exaggerating how great it is for the climate. The reason each group is overstating the importance of this move is because they want to fire up their respective voter bases. Democrats ... Read more ... |
|
|
“These streets should be paved with gold” - Heated World  (Jan 30) |
|
Jan 30 · On Friday, the Biden Administration announced a temporary pause on Department of Energy permit approvals for new liquified methane gas, or LNG, export terminals. I’ve been reporting a lot on that decision this week - specifically, trying to untangle some of the most prominent misinformation being spread about it from both Democrats and Republicans, to help you better understand what it really means for the climate, the economy, and energy security. I’ll have a newsletter laying all that out for you on Thursday. But in the meantime, I wanted to share with you an interview I did with James Hiatt, a third-generation former oil worker from Louisiana who has been campaigning ... | By James Hiatt, as told to Emily Atkin Read more ... |
|
|
The propane industry is trying to dupe you - Heated World  (Jan 25) |
|
Jan 25 · Members of a propane industry lobbying group strategized to downplay the full climate impacts of propane and market it as renewable or “clean energy,” recordings by HEATED and the Guardian reveal. The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), a U.S. lobbying group, has spent nearly $30 million over the last two years on advertisements for the fossil fuel, according to data compiled by Drilled, a multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability. The ads often promote propane, the vast majority of which is a byproduct of natural gas or crude oil refining, as a form of clean and renewable energy. But in a public November 2022 meeting recorded by the Energy ... Read more ... |
|
|
The fossil fuel executive inside the White House - Heated World  (Jan 23) |
|
Jan 23 · In the coming weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to make one of the most consequential climate change decisions of his term. Bloomberg News reports that the White House will soon decide whether to pause the permit approval process for more than a half dozen new liquified methane gas (LNG) export terminals, which would ship domestically produced fracked gas to countries overseas. (Note: LNG stands for liquified “natural” gas, but HEATED’s editorial policy is to call the product “methane” gas. Read more about why here.) These proposed terminals are massive fossil fuel projects that, if given the green light by the Department of Energy, could add up to 317 ... Read more ... |
|
|
Here’s how much Democrats get paid to shill for fossil fuels - Heated World  (Jan 18) |
|
Jan 18 · In January 2022, only a few years after leaving the elected seat she held for six years, former Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota got a new job: convincing climate-concerned liberals to love the fossil fuel industry. “It’s clear we have an existential threat to the planet,” said Heitkamp, in a December 2022 commercial for the methane gas lobbying group Natural Allies For a Clean Energy Future. “We should be doing everything that we can to help other countries do what we did, which is dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions by using natural gas.”The ad - titled “Real Talk with Heidi Heitkamp” - was one of a handful of public relations jobs Heitkamp did that year ... Read more ... |
|
|
Yes, climate activism can win - Heated World  (Jan 11) |
|
Jan 11 · This week, the scientific agencies of the world announced that 2023 was, by far, the hottest year in human history–and that 2024 may be even worse. For Emily and I, the news served as a bleak reminder that climate accountability journalism has never been more important or necessary. But one thing we’ve been thinking about lately is that there’s more to accountability journalism than exposing the bosses, brokers, and beneficiaries of climate delay. To truly arm readers with the information they need to fight the climate crisis, they also need to hear stories about how powerful interests can be defeated. That’s why, for my first newsletter of the year, I’d like to ... Read more ... |
|
|
A chemical disaster occurred almost every day in 2023 - Heated World  (Jan 5) |
|
Jan 5 · Climate policy obstructionists love to evangelize about the benefits of petrochemicals. Last year, in commercials and Congressional hearings alike, the fossil fuel industry and its political allies upped their messaging around the chemical byproducts of oil and gas, calling petrochemicals “essential to life,” and warning it would be dangerous to phase them out or transition to greener alternatives. What proponents consistently did not mention, however, was that petrochemicals were leaking, exploding, and catching fire all over the country last year, causing disastrous consequences multiple times per week. HEATED’s climate journalism is 100 percent reader-funded. ... Read more ... |
|
|
On climate deals, beware the word "historic" - Heated World  (Dec 14) |
|
Dec 14 · It is important for leaders of high-polluting nations to put a positive spin on the outcomes of global climate talks. An easy way to achieve said spin in to market the outcome as “historic.” This is what leaders like U.S. President Joe Biden and COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber are doing in the wake of COP28. Following the final deal, each called the outcome “historic” - a word that’s since graced the headlines of numerous major news outlets’ stories about the deal, alongside words like “unprecedented” and “landmark.” These quotes and headlines are not inaccurate. The final deal at COP28 is technically historic, in that it is the first deal that specifically calls on all ... Read more ... |
|
|
The 12-year-old who halted COP28 - Heated World  (Dec 12) |
|
Dec 12 · The United Arab Emirates has severely restricted protest activity at this year’s U.N. climate summit, placing harsh limits on what activists are allowed to say, as well as where and when demonstrations can occur. But on Monday, one activist managed to slip past the COP28 host country’s gaze, and pull off a truly unsanctioned and uncensored disruption: 12-year-old Licypriya Kangujam, or Licy for short. HEATED is climate journalism supported entirely by readers - no billionaires, foundations, or advertisers. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Video of the protest posted on X shows Licy quietly walking past ... Read more ... |
|
|
Top climatologists slam Sultan Al Jaber's "no science" claim on fossil fuel phaseout - Heated World  (Dec 7) |
|
Dec 7 · Will world leaders agree to phase out fossil fuels at COP28, this year’s U.N. climate summit in Dubai? It depends, in part, on whether they believe it is wise, prudent, and scientifically necessary to do so. This is why the fossil fuel industry needs to convince the public that phasing out fossil fuels is not wise, not prudent, and not scientifically necessary. And it’s why Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28 and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, recently said this: “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phaseout of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.” In his remarks revealed earlier this week by The ... Read more ... |
|
|
It’s official: COP28 has more fossil fuel lobbyists than ever - Heated World  (Dec 5) |
|
Dec 5 · The number of fossil fuel lobbyists at this year’s U.N. climate summit is nearly four times higher than it’s ever been, revealing an extraordinary amount of influence from the biggest climate polluters on Earth. Specifically, there are 2,456 fossil fuel representatives at this year’s United Nations Climate Change conference in the United Arab Emirates, according to an analysis of summit attendees published today by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition. There were only 636 fossil fuel lobbyists at last year’s COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, making the fossil fuel presence at this year’s summit “unprecedented,” the coalition said. “The sheer number of fossil fuel ... Read more ... |
|
|
Fossil fuel lobbyists pour into COP28 - Heated World  (Dec 1) |
|
Dec 1 · It’s day two of the 28th Conference of the Parties, known as COP28, the world’s most important climate conference - and organizers have released a massive excel spreadsheet containing all the names and workplaces of in-person attendees. HEATED spent yesterday going through that spreadsheet, and found hundreds of fossil fuel industry representatives who are actively working to delay climate policy at home. More like Conference of the Worst Party Ever! HEATED is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Alongside highly publicized attendees like King Charles III and Bill Gates, here are ... Read more ... |
|
|
COP28 sucks. Pay attention anyway. - Heated World  (Nov 23) |
|
Nov 23 · I can understand why one might want to tune out COP28, the United Nations climate change summit set to begin tomorrow in the United Arab Emirates. There’s the fact it’s being run by a literal fossil fuel baron: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), which also happens to have one of the biggest oil and gas expansion plans in the world. There’s the fact that Al Jaber’s self-proclaimed “game-changing plan” to achieve progress at COP28 is to give oil and gas companies more influence over the climate change summit, despite warnings from the U.N.’s former climate chief that the approach is “dangerous” and “a direct threat to ... Read more ... |
|
|
What does Taylor Swift owe the planet? - Heated World  (Nov 21) |
|
Nov 21 · It’s been widely reported that the day 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides collapsed and died at a sold-out sweltering Taylor Swift concert in Rio de Janeiro was a historic and dangerously hot day for Brazil, with the local heat index exceeding 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48ºC). What has been less discussed, at least thus far, is the fact that the day Benevides died was also a historic and dangerously hot day for the whole world. On Friday, November 17, scientists saw Earth’s average surface temperature momentarily rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time since humans began keeping temperature records, marking a brief entry into a deadly ... Read more ... |
|
|
The Instagram wellness influencers spreading climate misinformation - Heated World  (Nov 16) |
|
Nov 16 · When Cecile Simmons, a part-time yoga instructor, scrolled through her Instagram feed earlier this year, she noticed something peculiar happening among the health and wellness influencers she followed: some had started posting climate change conspiracies. A post from the New Age spirituality account @aguidetoawakening, for example, had told its 10,900 followers that the “The accelerating 'climate change’ is not due to human activities,” but due to the “organic phenomenon of Asciention Mechanics.” Another post from @drmercola, a homeopath with 500,000 followers, claimed that “Biden wants to block out the sun to save the planet.” That post garnered 8,470 likes and 1,405 ... Read more ... |
|
|
Surprise! Billionaires aren’t solving climate change - Heated World  (Nov 7) |
|
Nov 7 · When billionaires announce grand philanthropic donations for the planet, they tend to get heaps of positive attention. Who can forget the wave of press coverage that followed Jeff Bezos’ announcement of the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund; Elon Musk’s unveiling of a $100 million prize for “best carbon capture;” or Kim Kardashians’ recent announcement that she’s donating a portion of sales from her Skims Ultimate Nipple Bra to an environmental nonprofit. (On the View, Whoopi Goldberg said she was “so proud of this girl" for donating money to climate change. And we are too, Whoopi. We are too.) It is always good to see money going toward climate solutions. But one thing ... Read more ... |
|
|
Kim, there's people that are dying. - Heated World  (Nov 2) |
|
Nov 2 · I just want to start this off by saying I love a good climate change joke. The darker the better.Just yesterday, a friend who is also a climate journalist sent me a mug with a picture of a burning Earth on it that says, “The climate beat: So hot right now.” We joke to cope with professional lives dedicated to telling stories about one of the most deadly injustices known to humanity. We laugh because we have to. So when I saw Kim Kardashian’s new commercial for the SKIMS Ultimate Nipple Bra - which is essentially a bra with built-in hard nipples - my first reaction was to laugh. It pokes fun at the climate crisis in both a dark and racy way. Here’s what the whole thing ... Read more ... |
|
|
An Exxon-funded scientist speaks out - Heated World  (Oct 31) |
|
Oct 31 · Rebecca Grekin is researching how to mitigate climate change as a Ph.D. student at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability. Grekin’s research, which looks at how to lower emissions of air conditioned buildings, is vital to a world that is rapidly warming. But it is also supported by the same industry that started the climate crisis in the first place - a reality she says she still struggles with. “There are definitely ways that [fossil fuel funding] can influence the research, and I think that there are ways to set it up such that it doesn’t,” she told HEATED in an interview. That’s why Grekin and five other graduate students signed their names to an ... Read more ... |
|
|
Calling this "climate change" is not enough - Heated World  (Oct 26, 2023) |
|
Oct 26, 2023 · A monster Category 5 hurricane pummeled the southern Mexican state of Guerrero on Wednesday, killing at least 27 people, knocking out power, and destroying infrastructure in the famed city of Acapulco. If you’re surprised to hear about this, that may be because weather forecasters were, too. On Tuesday night, Hurricane Otis “experienced nearly unprecedented explosive development in hours, going from a Category 1 to a catastrophic Category 5 with nearly no warning, stunning residents and meteorologists alike,” Fox Weather reported. The technical term for when hurricanes gain strength very quickly is “rapid intensification,” and the phenomenon is becoming more common as ... Read more ... |
|
|
How Big Beef muzzled methane research - Heated World  (Oct 24, 2023) |
|
Oct 24, 2023 · Lately, we’ve been writing a lot about methane, the second-largest contributor to the climate crisis - and focusing mostly on the fossil fuel industry. But there’s another major contributor to methane emissions that we haven’t recently discussed, with an equally powerful lobby behind it: animal agriculture. Subscribers keep HEATED free for everyone. Help ensure our independent climate journalism remains accessible by joining the community today. Climate scientists have been saying for years that the world needs to eat less meat to slow global warming. They’ve said that even if fossil fuel emissions were immediately halted today, trends in meat and dairy consumption ... Read more ... |
|
|
The urgent need for methane literacy - Heated World  (Oct 19, 2023) |
|
Oct 19, 2023 · On Tuesday, The Washington Post published an important article on the latest, and perhaps greatest, recent threat to U.S. efforts to prevent climate catastrophe: A massive planned expansion of exported liquified methane gas. In addition to the eight liquified methane gas export terminals that are currently operational in U.S. waters, six more have been approved and are currently under construction; 11 more have been approved and are awaiting construction; four more are currently awaiting federal approval; and three more are in pre-filing application stages. It’s an unprecedented planned build-out of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and remarkable given that less than a ... Read more ... |
|
|
143 coal plants and a punch in the face - Heated World  (Oct 18, 2023) |
|
Oct 18, 2023 · The young people were angry. The man in the blue suit was angry. They expressed their anger in different ways. The young people, angry because of the U.S. government’s inadequate response to the climate crisis, organized a disruptive but non-violent protest at a policy conference last week, during which they confronted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg onstage and expressed outrage at his department’s recent controversial decision to approve a massive new oil terminal offshore of Freeport, Texas. The man in the blue suit, seemingly angry because of the 21-minute disruption, followed the protesters as they left and struck one of them in the head. A brief ... Read more ... |
|
|
Republicans use Israel-Hamas war to drum up fake climate controversy - Heated World  (Oct 12, 2023) |
|
Oct 12, 2023 · Here’s something to remember about the people and institutions committed to delaying climate action: They never let a crisis go to waste. That’s become clear in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas, and subsequent deadly air strikes in Gaza by Israel, which conservative politicians and right-wing media are now using as an opportunity to attack President Joe Biden for being concerned about climate change. While tempting to ignore, this latest right-wing outrage cycle is a useful window into the disingenuous ways conservatives use fear of global terrorism to turn public opinion against climate policy. So today, we’re going to talk about the common ... Read more ... |
|
|
Technically, that New York City flood was “mild” - Heated World  (Oct 04, 2023) |
|
Oct 04, 2023 · If you read the news or scrolled social media this weekend, you probably heard that New York City experienced record-breaking rainfall and catastrophic flooding on Friday. You probably heard that LaGuardia Airport shut down a terminal; that subway lines transformed into cesspools; that a whirlpool formed in Brooklyn; that a sea lion escaped its enclosure in the Central Park Zoo. But what you may not have heard, as I hadn’t before yesterday, is that scientists who study coastal flooding actually consider Friday’s flood to be “mild.” That’s because, while the rainfall itself was record-breaking - more than 8.65 inches fell at JFK airport - the coastal flood level was only ... Read more ... |
|
|
Do we need to change our behavior? - Heated World  (Sep 28, 2023) |
|
Sep 28, 2023 · Someone I admire recently reached out and asked if we could discuss his climate anxiety. This person, who does not work in climate change but reads about it frequently, told me that no matter how hard he tries, his anxiety about the planet’s future keeps getting worse. One reason for this, he speculated, was the feeling of screaming into a void. He said it feels like most people - including those who work in climate professionally - aren’t truly grappling with the severity of the problem. He said it feels like there are certain hard truths, particularly regarding humanity’s overconsumption of natural resources and the need to change behavior, that even climate-focused ... Read more ... |
|
|