Category Archives: Climate Change

Where Should We Go When Disaster Strikes?

When I started writing this blog on Wednesday morning, we were just beginning to see Hurricane Ida’s effects as it climbed through the Northeast, scheduled to pass through my home city, NYC. Two seemingly unrelated pieces in that day’s NYT … Continue reading

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Calculating the Social Cost of Carbon: What Are We Already Spending?

Last week, I reintroduced the concept of the social cost of carbon and explored a recent University of Chicago working paper (WP). The WP delved into President Biden’s attempts to reframe the conversation about the economic impact of climate change, … Continue reading

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The Social Cost of Carbon

Things are changing. My courses start tomorrow. Originally, I was scheduled to teach face-to-face but for a variety of reasons, I’m back to online-only. Many of my colleagues are still scheduled for either face-to-face or “hybrid” teaching, where at least … Continue reading

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The Math Identity for Olympic Medals

One of the biggest shocks of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was Simone Biles’ historic withdrawal from several events. Her teammates expressed solidarity with her decision and she received a lot of positive feedback globally for placing her health above her … Continue reading

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Infrastructure Timing

They did it! Today, after a long slog of debate, the US Senate has finally passed a bipartisan version of the infrastructure bill that came out of the American Jobs Plan the Biden administration proposed in April. For more information … Continue reading

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Heath Death Indicators

I have been spending most of my evenings watching the Tokyo Olympics.  One of the most frequent questions directed to athletes who have performed outdoors is how they handle the heat. Right now, Tokyo is having highs of 90oF, with … Continue reading

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Heat Deaths and Cold Deaths

We have been seeing a slew of catastrophes throughout the world that roughly coincided with the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere (June 20th). Almost all of them have been either partially caused or worsened by climate change. These … Continue reading

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Breaking With Business as Usual

My last three blogs focused on our collective attempts to limit anthropogenic global warming to an increase of 1.5oC in global temperature or, failing that, no more than 2oC. The series of blogs started with a detailed road map recently … 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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Heat Dome: Business as Usual

The “heat dome” has been at the top of the news in recent days, starting almost immediately after the official start of summer on Sunday, June 20th. Sonya Landau, the editor of this blog, wrote a beautiful and timely guest … Continue reading

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