Most recent 40 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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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #41 - Skeptical Science (Oct 13, 2024) |
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Oct 13, 2024 · Thanks to our increasing the efficiency of Earth's insulating blanket of greenhouse gases, we're having an affect on all features of the weather we experience. Unless we're to be mystified, surprised and needlessly harmed by bad weather we've added to our annual odds, it's important that we be able to distinguish our effects on the geophysics we experience as rain, wind, and the other features of our restless atmosphere that we call "weather." Fortunately there's an outfit doing exactly that, an initiative called World Weather Attribution (WWA). While the center of mass of WWA is academic in nature, the organization flips the usual sequence of publication; WWA analyses frequently ... Read more ...
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Fact brief - Is more CO2 a good thing because it’s plant food? - Skeptical Science (Oct 12, 2024) |
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Oct 12, 2024 · Plants need a balance of CO2, sunlight, water, and nutrients. Though more CO2 can initially boost growth, rising temperatures, disease vulnerability, shifting land fertility, and increased water demands offset these benefits.
The UN warns that global crop yields could decline by up to 30% by 2050, while a 2017 meta-analysis linked each degree of warming to a 3-7% yield loss for key crops like corn and soybeans. Losses are also attributed to increased disease pressure from altered climates.
Raised CO2 levels can also lower food quality. Reviews found reduced levels of essential nutrients in staple crops, while protein concentrations in grains like wheat and rice dropped ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #41 2024 - Skeptical Science (Oct 10, 2024) |
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Oct 10, 2024 · Manifold increase in the spatial extent of heatwaves in the terrestrial Arctic, Rantanen et al., Communications Earth & Environment:
It is widely acknowledged that the intensity, frequency and duration of heatwaves are increasing worldwide, including the Arctic. However, less attention has been paid to the land area affected by heatwaves. Here, using atmospheric reanalysis and global climate models, we show that the area covered by heatwaves is substantially expanding in the terrestrial Arctic. Compared to the mid-20th century, the total land area affected by severe heatwaves in the Arctic has doubled, the area of extreme heatwaves has tripled, and the area of very extreme ... Read more ...
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Climate change made Hurricane Helene and other 2024 disasters more damaging, scientists find - Skeptical Science (Oct 09, 2024) |
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Oct 09, 2024 · Deadly Hurricane Helene, wildfires in the Amazon, an extreme monsoon downpour in India, a heat wave during the Summer Olympics, and other dangerous and devastating weather events in 2024 were all made more likely and damaging by climate change, scientists have found.
Climate scientists quantified the link by running thousands of simulations in climate models, some that included and some that did not include the effects of human-caused climate pollution in the atmosphere. They also examined past and present weather data to see how the probability of these kinds of events has changed in a hotter world.
This approach, known as attribution science, is a relatively new branch ... Read more ...
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Climate change made Helene's rainfall more severe - Skeptical Science (Oct 08, 2024) |
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Oct 08, 2024 · Much of my immediate family lives in Asheville and Black Mountain, NC. While everyone is thankfully safe, this disaster struck much closer to home for me than most. There is lots that needs to be done for disaster relief, and I’d encourage folks who can to donate to the recovery effort.
But as Western North Carolina and other areas of the Southeastern US work to recover after the catastrophic flooding caused by Helene, its worth exploring the role that climate change may have played in the event.
While Helene would have been a disaster even in a world without climate change, the intensification of severe rainfall events is one of the most clear-cut impacts of a ... Read more ...
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You will not escape the climate crisis - Skeptical Science (Oct 07, 2024) |
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Oct 07, 2024 · On Bluesky, it was pointed out that Asheville, NC was recently listed as a place to go to avoid the climate crisis.
Mother Nature sent a “letter to the editor” indicating that she didn’t agree:
While climate change does not cause hurricanes, we are certain it makes them more destructive. Humans have increased sea level, leading to more destructive storm surge, and a warmer atmosphere produces more rain.
Many people don’t understand how this will affect them. They think it’s a long-term problem where small impacts accumulate over decades, eventually leading to significant consequences far in the future.
In reality, though, these ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #40 - Skeptical Science (Oct 06, 2024) |
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Oct 06, 2024 · Our Story of the Week is statistically obvious by headcount in the list below. It's all about Hurricane Helene. A common theme in reportage from affected areas is the element of surprise in arrival of flooding on a previously unimagined and unexperienced scale. Affected residents of a swathe of states spanning from Florida to Virginia were depending on guidance from experts to prepare for this storm and despite fairly strident warnings it's safe to say that the advice they received didn't encompass the unfolding reality of the storm, particularly as it intruded into the continental interior and subsequently stalled as it died away into a tropical depression.
How could we be so ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #40 2024 - Skeptical Science (Oct 03, 2024) |
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Oct 03, 2024 · Sloth metabolism may make survival untenable under climate change scenarios, Cliffe et al., PeerJ:
Sloths are limited by the rate at which they can acquire energy and are unable to regulate core body temperature (Tb) to the extent seen in most mammals. Therefore, the metabolic impacts of climate change on sloths are expected to be profound. Here we use indirect calorimetry to measure the oxygen consumption (VO2) and Tb of highland and lowland two-fingered sloths (Choloepus hoffmanni) when exposed to a range of different ambient temperatures (Ta) (18 °C –34 °C), and additionally record changes in Tb and posture over several days in response to natural fluctuations ... Read more ...
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The unsung heroes of India’s extreme weather disasters - Skeptical Science (Oct 02, 2024) |
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Oct 02, 2024 · Community health care worker Noushadbi Mujawar safely evacuated everyone from Rajapur, an isolated village in India, as its streets began flooding in August 2019. Mujawar, 42, remained in the village herself even as floodwaters rose 12 feet above her house.
“I moved to a nearby taller building and decided to stay,” said Mujawar, who wanted to help those villagers who stayed with their property as the floodwaters rose.
“Many people stay in their homes during floods to care for their cattle, as evacuating them involves significant risks,” she said.
Mujawar is one of over a million accredited social health activists, known as ASHAs, in India, ... Read more ...
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Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse - Skeptical Science (Oct 01, 2024) |
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Oct 01, 2024 · After a spectacular burst of rapid intensification, Hurricane Helene made landfall just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, at about 11:10 p.m. EDT Thursday. Top sustained winds were estimated at 140 mph, making Helene a Category 4 hurricane at landfall. We’ll have much more on Helene’s many impacts—some still unfolding on Friday—in our next Eye in the Storm post.
Helene’s landfall gives the U.S. a record eight Cat 4 or Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane landfalls in the past eight years (2017-2024), seven of them being continental U.S. landfalls. That’s as many Cat 4 and 5 landfalls as occurred in ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #39 - Skeptical Science (Sep 29, 2024) |
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Sep 29, 2024 · But extreme rainfall is not uppermost in the thoughts of our Skeptical Science team. Instead, a much more local tragedy has overwhelmed us: the sudden loss of key Skeptical Science author and highly esteemed and valued colleague John Mason. John passed away on Friday, September 20, untimely and wholly unanticipated. Not only was John extraordinarily productive for Skeptical Science but he was also a person who inevitably ended up being counted as a friend to any colleague with whom he shared purpose and effort. John's death is a full-spectrum loss, a cruel blow. For us, the Story of the Week is about Remembering our friend John Mason.
Before September 22
September ... Read more ...
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Remembering our friend John Mason - Skeptical Science (Sep 27, 2024) |
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Sep 27, 2024 · We are extremely sad to say that our esteemed Skeptical Science colleague— and good friend to many of us— John Mason passed away on Friday September 20, 2024. Only last week, we blew a horn of appreciation for John's remarkable gift for telling stories about science. Our expectation was that of John being a constant in our lives. We are truly stunned by John's unexpected departure. With this post, we want to recount some of John's many contributions to Skeptical Science, a big part of a legacy which will live on in the minds of old and new readers of John’s work. Also included are personal memories from members of our team who had the pleasure to work and ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #39 2024 - Skeptical Science (Sep 26, 2024) |
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Sep 26, 2024 · Refined Estimates of Global Ocean Deep and Abyssal Decadal Warming Trends, Johnson & Purkey, Geophysical Research Letters:
Deep and abyssal layer decadal temperature trends from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s are mapped globally using Deep Argo and historical ship-based Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) instrument data. Abyssal warming trends are widespread, with the strongest warming observed around Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation regions. The warming strength follows deep western boundary currents transporting abyssal waters north and decreases with distance from Antarctica. Abyssal cooling trends are found in the North Atlantic and eastern South Atlantic, regions ... Read more ...
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Climate Adam: Turning the Tide on Climate Change - Skeptical Science (Sep 25, 2024) |
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Sep 25, 2024 · This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any).
As the world heats, we face the consequences from rising seas, extreme weather, and the spread of disease. But what can we do to turn the tide? New research is revealing the climate actions that are actually working, and how we can all help build unstoppable momentum towards a climate tipping point to halt global warming.
Support ClimateAdam on patreon: https://patreon.com/climateadam
THE ESCALATOR (free to republish) Read more ...
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Just have a think: Arctic Sea Ice minimum 2024. Three degrees Celsius warming now baked in? - Skeptical Science (Sep 24, 2024) |
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Sep 24, 2024 · This video includes conclusions of the "Just have a Think" channel's creator Dave Borlace. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any).
From the video‘s description:
Arctic Sea ice reaches it's minimum extent each year around the middle of September. This year is one of the lowest in recorded history. Ocean temperatures have been so 'off the charts' in 2023 and 2024 that scientists fear those waters have reached their capacity to mop up after us humans and are now starting to release that energy. On our current trajectory, by 2100, our planet will reach a temperature not seen for 3 MILLION years!. ... Read more ...
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Correcting myths about the cost of clean energy - Skeptical Science (Sep 23, 2024) |
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Sep 23, 2024 · After decades of stable electricity prices, U.S. residents have seen their rates rise by one-third over the past four years.
The fossil fuel lobby and some Republican politicians are exploiting the opportunity to falsely place the blame on clean energy sources.
“We are going to get the energy prices down,” former President Donald Trump said at an August 2024 rally in Wisconsin. “You know, this was caused by their horrible energy – wind.”
In reality, wind is the cheapest source of new power in the United States today.
It’s true that electricity from wind and sunshine is intermittent, depending on the weather and time of day. ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38 - Skeptical Science (Sep 22, 2024) |
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Sep 22, 2024 · Our Story of the Week is about a newly released long term Earth surface temperature chronology. But this report is locally completely overshadowed for us by news of bereavement arriving only yesterday as of publication. Withholding our loss seems dishonest so here and now we'll collide with an awful reality.
We are extremely sad to say that our esteemed Skeptical Science colleague— and good friend to many of us— John Mason has passed away. Only last week we blew a horn of appreciation for John's remarkable gift for telling stories about science. Our expectation was that of John being a constant in our lives. We are truly stunned by John's unexpected departure. We ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #37 2024 - Skeptical Science (Sep 19, 2024) |
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Sep 19, 2024 · A just world on a safe planet: a Lancet Planetary Health–Earth Commission report on Earth-system boundaries, translations, and transformations, Gupta et al., The Lancet Planetary Health:
The health of the planet and its people are at risk. The deterioration of the global commons—ie, the natural systems that support life on Earth—is exacerbating energy, food, and water insecurity, and increasing the risk of disease, disaster, displacement, and conflict. In this Commission, we quantify safe and just Earth-system boundaries (ESBs) and assess minimum access to natural resources required for human dignity and to enable escape from poverty. Collectively, these ... Read more ...
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2024's unusually persistent warmth - Skeptical Science (Sep 16, 2024) |
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Sep 16, 2024 · My inaugural post on The Climate Brink 18 months ago looked at the year 2024, and found that it was likely to be the warmest year on record on the back of a (than forecast) El Nino event. I suggested “there is a real chance that the world exceeds 1.5C above preindustrial levels in 2024 in the Berkeley Earth record” but that “it is still more likely than not that 2024 temperatures come in below that level.”
Since that post, I think its safe to say that the intervening year and a half surprised us all. We saw extreme (one might even say gobsmacking) global surface temperatures in the second half of 2023, which pushed the year above 1.5C in the Berkeley ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37 - Skeptical Science (Sep 15, 2024) |
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Sep 15, 2024 · From time to time we like to make our Story of the Week all about us— and this is one of those moments, except that "us" is more than only Skeptical Science.
This week we published our 16th Fact Brief of the year, Does manmade CO2 have any detectable fingerprint? As with all Fact Briefs it's a slightly different look than our ususal output.
The "fact brief" format is a less typical communications mode for us but the main effort at Gigafact, our partner and precipitating instigator in creating these bite-sized cognitive correctants. In a fine example of finding an importantly needful job vacancy and filling it, Gigafact has zeroed in on a significant vacant ... Read more ...
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Fact brief - Does manmade CO2 have any detectable fingerprint? - Skeptical Science (Sep 14, 2024) |
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Sep 14, 2024 · A key piece of evidence involves carbon isotope ratios in the atmosphere. Isotopes are different versions of the same element. Carbon comes in three isotopes of different weights and amounts: carbon-12 (98.9% of all carbon), carbon-13 (1.1%) and carbon-14 (trace amounts only).
Photosynthetic plants prefer the lightest isotope, carbon-12, because it is favored in photosynthesis reactions. That means plant tissues have relatively less carbon-13 than carbon-12. Fossil fuels, made of dead plants, also carry that distinct low carbon-13 isotope ratio, as does the CO2 produced by burning them.
Measurements over recent decades show a shift in the isotope ratio of atmospheric ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #37 2024 - Skeptical Science (Sep 12, 2024) |
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Sep 12, 2024 · Early knowledge but delays in climate actions: An ecocide case against both transnational oil corporations and national governments, Hauser et al., Environmental Science & Policy:
Cast within the wide context of investigating the collusion at play between powerful political-economic actors and decision-makers as monopolists and debates about ‘the modern corporation and private property’ (Berle and Means, 1932/2017), ‘the new industrial state’ (Galbraith, 1967), and ‘the economic theory of regulation’ (Stigler, 1971), the paper reviews the contentious relationship between states, corporations, and markets. Specifically, the article probes ... Read more ...
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Voters love this climate policy they’ve never heard of - Skeptical Science (Sep 11, 2024) |
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Sep 11, 2024 · The Inflation Reduction Act is the Biden administration’s signature climate law and the largest U.S. government investment in reducing climate pollution to date. Among climate advocates, the policy is well-known and celebrated, but beyond that, only a minority of Americans have heard much about it.
Once voters learn a bit about this landmark law, however, a large majority support it.
These findings are from a survey of U.S. registered voters, conducted jointly by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (the publisher of this site) and the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.
In the nationally representative survey, ... Read more ...
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New Models Show Stronger Atlantic Hurricanes, and More of Them - Skeptical Science (Sep 10, 2024) |
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Sep 10, 2024 · Here’s an example of some of the best kind of climate reporting, especially in that it relates to impacts that will directly affect the audience.
WFLA in Tampa conducted a study in collaboration with the Department of Energy, analyzing trends in hurricane strength, and projecting hurricane activity in to the future.The results are sobering.
One of the predictions is for hurricanes with 20 percent stronger maximum winds. As Jeff Berardelli explains below, that 20 percent is actually much, much worse than it sounds.
THE ESCALATOR (free to republish) Read more ...
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How mismanagement, not wind and solar energy, causes blackouts - Skeptical Science (Sep 09, 2024) |
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Sep 09, 2024 · In February 2021, several severe storms swept across the United States, culminating with one that the Weather Channel unofficially named Winter Storm Uri. In Texas, Uri knocked out power to over 4.5 million homes and 10 million people. Hundreds of Texans died as a result, and the storm is estimated to have cost the state $130 billion.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, quickly sought to blame the crisis on renewable energy. While the storm and blackouts were still ongoing, Abbott told Sean Hannity of Fox News, “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America … fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #36 - Skeptical Science (Sep 08, 2024) |
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Sep 08, 2024 · Our Story of the Week is about how peopele are not born stupid but can be fooled into appearing exactly so.
This week we posted a critique of Australian Queensland state senator Gerard Rennick by journalist and author Peter Hadfield, sailing under his Potholer54 YouTube flag. The title "Could this be the stupidest politician in Australia?" is certainly not a flattering introduction to Rennick, but hearing the senator express his understanding of CO2's role in Earth's atmosphere in his own voice and words is far less flattering. He really does sound stupid— obdurately so.
Is Senator Rennick unusually stupid? Doubtful. Rennick holds two post-graduate degrees, each ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #36 2024 - Skeptical Science (Sep 05, 2024) |
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Sep 05, 2024 · Diurnal Temperature Range Trends Differ Below and Above the Melting Point, Pithan & Schatt, Geophysical Research Letters:
The globally averaged diurnal temperature range (DTR) has shrunk since the mid-20th century, and climate models project further shrinking. Observations indicate a slowdown or reversal of this trend in recent decades. Here, we show that DTR has a minimum for average temperatures close to 0°C. Observed DTR shrinks strongly at colder temperature, where warming shifts the average temperature toward the DTR minimum, and expands at warmer temperature, where warming shifts the average temperature away from the DTR minimum. Most, but not all climate models ... Read more ...
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The thermodynamics of electric vs. internal combustion cars - Skeptical Science (Sep 04, 2024) |
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Sep 04, 2024 · I love thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is like your mom: it may not tell you what you can do, but it damn well tells you what you can’t do. I’ve written a few previous posts that include thermodynamics, like one on air capture of carbon dioxide and one on air conditioning. For whatever reason, they tend to get a lot of traffic. Well, here’s another one.
I was charging my electric vehicle (EV) at a DC fast charger the other day and was pumping electrons into my car at around 200 kilowatts (kW). Man, that’s a lot of power, I thought to myself. For reference, 200 kW is the average power draw of around 60 houses. Just going into my car.
That got me ... Read more ...
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Five ingenious ways people could beat the heat without cranking the AC - Skeptical Science (Sep 03, 2024) |
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Sep 03, 2024 · Every summer brings a new spate of headlines about record-breaking heat – for good reason: 2023 was the hottest year on record, in keeping with the upward trend scientists have been clocking for decades.
With climate forecasts suggesting that heat waves will only become more frequent and severe in the future, it’s increasingly clear that the world needs new ways to adapt to heat – in addition to eliminating climate-warming pollution.
Heat waves pose a serious (and costly) public health risk, given that extreme heat can prompt heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke and can also worsen chronic conditions like cardiovascular and respiratory ... Read more ...
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New paper about detecting climate misinformation on Twitter/X - Skeptical Science (Sep 02, 2024) |
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Sep 02, 2024 · Together with Cristian Rojas, Frank Algra-Maschio, Mark Andrejevic, Travis Coan, and Yuan-Fang Li, I just published a paper in Nature Communications Earth & Environment where we use the Computer Assisted Recognition of Denial and Skepticism (CARDS) machine learning model to detect climate misinformation in 5 million climate tweets. We find over half of climate misinformation tweets involve personal attacks or conspiracy theories. This new paper builds on work published in 2021 which I wrote about in the article How machine learning holds a key to combating misinformation.
Here is the abstract of our open access paper "Hierarchical machine learning models can identify stimuli ... Read more ...
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