Tag Archives: carbon emissions

The Sky as an Inspiration

A week ago, I got a new email from a young friend, reacting to the recent verdict by the Supreme Court that negates Roe vs. Wade, which has defined the abortion landscape for the last 50 years: I was reading … Continue reading

Posted in administration, Climate Change, politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Math of the American Commitment

A short entry appeared in the Scientific American journal in the middle of the COP26 meeting: “Doing the Math on Biden’s Climate Pledge.” The author was trying to explain how the Biden administration—only three months after assuming control from an … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Energy, law, politics, Sustainability, US | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Price of the Green Shift

I started this series of blogs about energy companies and their shift toward greener power sources with a citation from an earlier blog (July 17, 2013), quoting then-CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, who opined, “What good is it to save … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Energy Companies Shifting Greener

What does it mean for oil companies to shift toward being “greener”? How can we measure that change? More than 8 years ago, I talked about how we can use the amount of unextracted fuels as a marker for this … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Anthropogenic, Climate Change, Economics, Sustainability, US | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Climate Change, US | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Anthropocene, Anthropogenic, Climate Change, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Anthropocene, Climate Change, Extreme Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The IEA, Heat, and Net Zero

Summer has officially started. Over the last week or so, I’ve been keeping track of which large US cities have experienced temperatures above 100oF, according to the New York Times weather report (see August 18, 2020 blog for descriptions of … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Electricity, Energy, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Electricity Through Fusion: Hope vs. Reality

I am finishing writing this blog on D-Day, Sunday, June 6th. This commemorates the day the Allied forces invaded Normandy on their way to liberating the rest of Western Europe from the Nazi menace. On April 13, 1945, they reached … Continue reading

Posted in Electricity, Energy, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment