Winter has begun to arrive in Texas. In the panhandle, temperatures are expected to get as low as 22 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, while the National Weather Service forecast office in Amarillo told residents to brace themselves for Tuesday, when “temperatures will plummet to som … | Continue reading
Hiking gear exists so that, when nature tries to kill you, it is a little less likely to succeed. Sometimes this gear’s life-saving function is obvious — a Nalgene to carry extra water so you don’t die of thirst, or a fist-sized first-aid kit so you don’t bleed to death — while o … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of Arizona received more than a foot of snow over the weekend • Heavy rainfall caused flash floods in Argentina • A coastal flood watch is in effect for Washington, D.C., where Congress is back in session.THE TOP FIVE1. Insurance companies are ‘quiet qui … | Continue reading
In the last days of 2023, Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon ended an argument that had lasted eight years and three presidential administrations. Juliana v. United States, a groundbreaking climate case filed by a group of twenty one young plain … | Continue reading
If one were to go looking for a Permian Basin of wind — a wind energy superregion waiting to be born — the actual Permian Basin wouldn’t be a bad place to start.Wind potential is everywhere in the U.S., off the coasts and in the Mountain West especially, and the Inflation Reducti … | Continue reading
Current conditions: More than 300 flood warnings are in place across England • Hazardous waves up to 16 feet tall are slamming into the California coast • Rain and snow is expected this weekend in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture, where rescuers are racing against time to find earthqu … | Continue reading
Last year showed that renewables are not fated to always and everywhere get steadily cheaper. But if 2023 was a year when the industry was hampered by inflation, high interest rates, and lingering supply chain issues, then maybe 2024 could be a year of normalization — when govern … | Continue reading
Although Canada has developed a reputation as a responsible steward of its massive — and environmentally crucial — boreal forests, a new study published in the journal Land calls that reputation into question. The analysis, by researchers at Australia’s Griffith University, found … | Continue reading
Sunnova and Solyndra are about to have more in common than just being solar companies with Pokémon-sounding names. More than 12 years after conservatives targeted Solyndra — a scandal-plagued, now-defunct solar company that received a $535 million loan from the Energy Department’ … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The western U.S. is in the midst of a severe “snow drought” • The Great Lakes began 2024 with their smallest amount of ice cover in 50 years • Finland’s Enontekiö airport recorded the country’s coldest January temperature since 2006: -44 degrees Fahrenheit.THE … | Continue reading
If President Biden chose to sit on his hands for the remainder of his term, he would already have done far more to address climate change than any of his predecessors. But he still has a bunch of unfinished business — half-completed rules that will need to be finalized — that cou … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of northern France are flooded after Storm Henk • China confirmed 2023 broke extreme heat records • A California-bound ship carrying 800 metric tons of lithium batteries is stuck in Alaska, riding out a major winter storm.THE TOP FIVE1. Tesla and Rivian … | Continue reading
News broke in early November that the U.S. federal dietary guidelines might soon warn Americans against eating “ultraprocessed food.” It’s far from a done deal — an advisory committee is merely examining the issue, with no action expected before 2025. But it’s still somewhat of a … | Continue reading
The Department of Treasury published new rules last year that will determine which new electric vehicles, purchased for personal use, will qualify for a $7,500 tax credit. They went into effect on April 18, 2023, and last for the next decade or so. These new tax credit rules are … | Continue reading
How is the electric car industry doing? It depends on how you ask the question and who you ask it of.Two leading U.S. companies — one a startup turned stalwart, the other still trying to secure itself a foothold in the market — reported their production and sales figures for the … | Continue reading
Current conditions: States in the Northeast are bracing for a major winter storm • Two months’ worth of rain fell in just three days in eastern Australia • Major floods brought parts of Saudi Arabia to a standstill.THE TOP FIVE1. Fewer cars eligible for 2024 EV tax creditThe numb … | Continue reading
Suppose you’d never heard of the gas-powered car. One day, someone comes along to evangelize a new Honda CR-V as the hottest thing in technology. You might rightfully ask: Are you serious? You want me to put my family inside a box propelled by petroleum explosions? I’m supposed t … | Continue reading
This year set a high bar for climate writing, from fiction like Eleanor Catton’s terrific Birnam Woods and Lydia Kiesling’s sharp and prescient Mobility to nonfiction like John Vaillant’s best-of-list-topping Fire Weather and Jeff Goodell’s timely The Heat Will Kill You First. Ne … | Continue reading
I may be the new kid on the block (ICYMI I joined in November as Heatmap’s deputy editor), but if anything, I think that makes me even more qualified to talk about the most popular stories from our nine-ish months in existence — after all, for most of that time I was reading them … | Continue reading
I respect that it is still 2023 for three more days and that, as an act of self-love, you’ve permitted yourself not to think about the presidential election until next year, but bear with me for a moment. If you want to understand the biggest climate story of 2023, you’ve got to … | Continue reading
Humans have a natural inclination toward trees, and to telling stories about them. Norse mythology tells the story of Yggrasil, the world tree, upon which all the realms sit. The Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, and its descendant has become a major pilgrimage … | Continue reading
People love to complain about how there aren’t enough good movies that deal with climate change, and that the ones that do all focus on disasters without giving us any reason for hope. They aren’t wrong. The two most famous climate-themed movies ever made are probably The Day Aft … | Continue reading
Growing up, I begrudgingly attended the annual Father’s Day car show on our local Main Street. My dad liked to spend the morning ogling muscle cars and chatting up their often tattooed or bearded owners. I tried my best to feign interest, but as much as I love my dad, I just coul … | Continue reading
One of the biggest climate stories of the year — the first, and perhaps only, to go viral — didn’t so much draw attention to the warming planet as it did to the dangers of using fossil fuels. During the second week of January, Bloomberg reported that a federal safety agency would … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Temperatures are about 30 degrees higher in the Plains and Midwest than what’s seasonally normal • Northern Vietnam is enduring a severe cold spell • High winds from Storm Pia helped the U.K. set a new record for wind energy generation in just 30 minutes. THE … | Continue reading
The most generous, lucrative, and all-around lavish subsidy in President Joe Biden’s climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is the new tax credit for clean hydrogen production. Under the policy, a company can get a bounty of up to $3 for each kilogram of hydrogen made with cle … | Continue reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is out with its annual Automotive Trends Report for 2022 model-year vehicles, and the numbers are some of the best it’s seen. Average emissions are at a record low and fuel economy is at a record high — and according to preliminary 2023-mo … | Continue reading
Katherine Ricke, a University of California at San Diego sustainability professor, turned to face the roomful of attentive scientists at the American Geophysical Union a few weeks ago. In any other year, she would have been about to break one of climate science’s biggest taboos. … | Continue reading
Back in April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new vehicle emissions standards that seem poised to transform how our roads look. They’re so strict, according to NPR, that up to 67% of new vehicles sold in 2032 would have to be electric to meet them. Immediately, it … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Southern California remains at risk of flooding and may even see some waterspouts or tornadoes • A wildfire is burning out of control in Perth, in Australia • It's the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. THE TOP FIVE 1. U.S. may hike tariffs o … | Continue reading
When Canadian wildfire smoke descended on my hometown in Indiana this summer, I was distraught. I live in London now, but much of my family remains in the Midwest, and as an orange haze blanketed the landscape and the air quality plummeted, I worried about their health. “Smoke ev … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Southern California is bracing for heavy rain • China's bitter cold is complicating earthquake rescue efforts • Iceland's capital of Reykjavik could be hit by pollution from a volcanic eruption.THE TOP FIVE1. E-scooter company Bird files for bankruptcyE-scoote … | Continue reading
I’m not normally concerned about having the perfect home — though I’m also not normally interviewing Mr. Christmas Tree himself from my living room, with a scraggly, disco-lit Nordmann fir in the background of my Zoom shot.A high-quality tree should have “up-turning branches, so … | Continue reading
Yesterday, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Nikola founder Trevor Milton to four years in prison for lying to his investors about his electric truck startup’s prospects and progress. Last year, a jury found Milton guilty on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wi … | Continue reading
There’s a brook that runs along the Mountain Home Park in Brattleboro, Vermont, providing the sort of pleasant babbling sound people play at night to help them fall asleep. On a typical morning, the water moves quickly and is shallow enough that you can see the rocks under the su … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula has finally started to erupt • At least 120 people were killed in an earthquake in China • Meteorologists say Americans on the East Coast hoping for snow in January should keep “expectations in check.”THE TOP FIVE1. S … | Continue reading
Voters in Maine were confronted with an unusual decision when they went to the polls this November. Question three on the ballot asked Mainers if they wanted to eliminate the two private utilities that delivered electricity to 97% of the state. A new, nonprofit utility called Pin … | Continue reading
Current conditions: More than 130,000 people on the East Coast are without power after a weekend storm • Freakishly strong winds killed at least 13 people in Argentina • China’s deep freeze continues to defy forecasters’ expectations. THE TOP FIVE1. Australia’s Queensland flooded … | Continue reading
Faulkner Architects have practiced from Truckee, California in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range for 35 years. The firm’s particular approach to design takes inspiration from founder Greg Faulkner’s former work in aircraft design. “Precision is one of the things we’re about,” Faul … | Continue reading
When I was in high school, I had to memorize the entire taxonomic hierarchy of the American moose. But I never learned about greenhouse gases. This never struck me as odd until I read a recent op-ed in The Boston Globe by Anita Soracco, a professor of physics and environmental sc … | Continue reading
The annual COP 28 gathering is over, and it’s about time. As Robinson Meyer writes here at Heatmap, many important things came out of the conference, despite the utter joke of holding it in a notorious oil dictatorship — the United Arab Emirates — with the head of that country’s … | Continue reading
As climate world fixated this week on the final wranglings at COP28, the researchers studying our changing planet delivered more bad news about the Arctic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 18th annual Arctic Report Card was packed this year with words like “e … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A major storm will batter the U.S. Eastern Seaboard this weekend • Moscow is buried under record snowfall • It's 50 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in Paris, which was recently named the world's top city destination. THE TOP FIVE1. IEA: Coal demand remains high, … | Continue reading
In the moments after Sultan Al Jaber, the president of this year’s COP, struck his gavel to finalize the text of the first-ever global stocktake, Anne Rasmussen, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, took the floor. “We are a little confused about what just … | Continue reading
When the announcement came that COP29 will be held in Baku in 2024, the immediate reaction in the climate community was “again?!” It wasn’t that Azerbaijan — a nation of about 10 million people, situated on the Caspian Sea at the southern tail of the Caucasus mountains — had host … | Continue reading
Current conditions: More than 125 highways are closed in China due to a record-setting winter storm • Tropical Cyclone Jasper downed trees in parts of Queensland in Australia • The Geminids meteor shower will peak tonight. THE TOP FIVE1. Trump promises to revoke U.S. pledge to Gr … | Continue reading
Now it is over. Early on Wednesday morning, negotiators in Dubai reached an agreement at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the global meeting otherwise known as COP28. Their final text for the Global Stocktake — a kind of report … | Continue reading
More than 2 million Tesla vehicles are set to receive over-the-air updates to address failures in the Autopilot system, the carmaker’s much-hyped and oft-abused driver-assistance program. But the recall report published by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration … | Continue reading