Category Archives: covid

Learning from COVID-19 to mitigate the energy transition

Two years ago, I wrote a blog, “Cherry-Picking Data in an Energy Transition: Renewables & Polar Bears” (September 17, 2019) that took stock of where we stood in the ongoing energy transition. I am repeating the photos from that blog … Continue reading

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Business as Usual: Part 2

The Connection Between Carbon Concentration and Temperature Last week, I used The Scripps Institute and NOAA’s recent measurements of the global carbon dioxide concentration (as measured in Mauna Loa, Hawaii) to calculate the acceleration in carbon dioxide atmospheric accumulation from … Continue reading

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Earth Day 2021

Earth Day is in two days. It’s a big day. Among other distinctions, it is both my wife’s birthday and that of this blog (this is now 9 years!). From a climate change perspective, this year’s celebration is special because … Continue reading

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Green Taxonomy

On December 27, 2016, I posted a blog, “Impact Assessment: Self-Inflicted Genocide and the Toronto Principle.” I cited an Op-Ed from Benjamin A. Franta: Last December, a committee at the University of Toronto released a report on the issue of divestment, drawing … Continue reading

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Climate Change, Social Media & Politics

I teach different levels of climate change courses and do my own research on the subject. My semester started at the end of January and I had four senior students who needed to select their own research topics regarding the … Continue reading

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Winners and Losers: COVID and Coal

President Biden signed 17 executive orders immediately after his inauguration on January 20th (January 26th blog). Many of them nullified President Trump’s policies which had deliberately ignored climate change and thwarted mitigation efforts. Foremost of these new policies was the … Continue reading

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Physics of Reality

Spring semester at my school started yesterday. I have a few senior physics students, each of whom will need to produce a research paper. I want their research to reflect some aspect of the world that we live in. It … Continue reading

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Peaceful Presidential Transition vs. the Rise of Nazis

I started writing this one day after President Biden and Vice President Harris were inaugurated. Many of us were thoroughly relieved that the event turned out to be a dignified, uneventful transition of power. I wouldn’t quite call it peaceful, … Continue reading

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Godwin’s Law and Us

This is a follow up to my “Shame” blog about the president-triggered mob attack on the American government in Washington, DC on January 6th. The attack was one part of a series of efforts to void the November 3rd election … Continue reading

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K-Shaped Global Disasters

In an earlier blog (August 4, 2020), I presented anthropogenic climate change, COVID-19, population, jobs, and equity as circles in a Venn Diagram. COVID-19 gives us an opportunity to quantify those relationships. In this case, jobs represent the economic impact … Continue reading

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