As nearly any six year old would be more than happy to tell you, the problem is never that there is too much ice cream, or too many toys, or too much screen time. Yet adults considering the political and economic challenges of decarbonizing energy systems continue to harp on the … | Continue reading
When the White House announced on Friday that it would temporarily pause the approval of new liquified natural gas export terminals, it wasn’t just a victory for climate activists. It also drew the line for the first big showdown of the longest general election in modern history. … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Warm temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and Central Plains could set daily records • Jet stream to dump “extended” rain on California • It’ll hit nearly 60 degrees today in Kansas City, whose Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five y … | Continue reading
Does everything actually suck right now? Or is it just the end of January? It can be difficult to tell. We’re officially in the thick of what Americans consider to be the worst time of year, when complaining about the weather is an acceptable salutation and feeling “blah” is the … | Continue reading
In 2017, rock climber Alex Honnold went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote Free Solo, the then-new documentary about his unassisted climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan. “Is there anything bigger than that?” Kimmel prompted as a closing question. “I mean, there are technically some bigge … | Continue reading
The temperature rose to 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Washington, D.C. today. That is weird because it’s currently January 26, and because about four inches of snow fell last week. (Literally, D.C. public schools had a snow day a week ago.) Now the snow has melted and people are walki … | Continue reading
Perhaps the biggest political test of the climate movement has now arrived. There are a few ways to think about this. But first, the facts: The Biden administration will temporarily stop approving new liquified natural gas export terminals, allowing the Energy Department to study … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Spain experienced its warmest January day ever recorded • Huge parts of the U.S. are blanketed in dense fog • California is bracing for another atmospheric river that could bring heavy rain. THE TOP FIVE1. Biden confirms delay on LNG export approvals The Biden … | Continue reading
If you’ve had the uneasy sense that winter weather isn’t what it used to be, you’re not alone — and you’re probably right. The everyday effects of climate change on the year’s coldest months are quickly becoming too blatant to dismiss. As annual heat records continue to topple ye … | Continue reading
If you’ve had the uneasy sense that winter weather isn’t what it used to be, you’re not alone — and you’re probably right. The everyday effects of climate change on the year’s coldest months are quickly becoming too blatant to dismiss. As annual heat records continue to topple ye … | Continue reading
Every few months, corporate earnings announcements give us the chance to (pretty literally) take stock of how the energy transition is going. After a rocky end-of-year for many renewables companies, this earnings season was, perhaps, more warily anticipated than most. A bunch of … | Continue reading
One of the oldest ways to store up energy is in hot rocks. Egyptians built adobe homes millennia ago that absorbed heat during the day and released it at night, and wood-fired ovens with bricks that radiate residual heat have been around since the Middle Ages. Now, this ancient f … | Continue reading
One of the oldest ways to store up energy is in hot rocks. Egyptians built adobe homes millennia ago that absorbed heat during the day and released it at night, and wood-fired ovens with bricks that radiate residual heat have been around since the Middle Ages. Now, this ancient f … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Colombia declared a natural disaster after unrelenting wildfires • Tropical Cyclone Kirrily poses a unique risk to Australia due to the storm’s “irregular shape” • Washington, D.C., could hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit in January for the first time in four years. T … | Continue reading
This morning, as far as anyone knew, the U.S. was considering whether to approve 17 new facilities for the export of liquified natural gas. By this afternoon, in a move destined to ripple through the race for the White House, those considerations was off. According to reporting b … | Continue reading
2023 was the year Tesla decided it would sell a lot of cars, even if it meant lowering prices. This year, however, Tesla may see “notably slower” growth, the company warned Wednesday in an investor update.Tesla argued it was “between two major growth waves.” The first saw the ris … | Continue reading
The largest dam removal project in American history took an irreversible step forward earlier this month when crews opened a 16-foot-wide tunnel in the base of the Iron Gate Dam in Hornbrook, California. That event marked the beginning of the end of a decades-long effort to resto … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Sydney, Australia, is under a severe heatwave warning • Flood watches are in effect for 17 U.S. states • The air quality is dangerously low in Ayodhya, India, where half a million people have flocked to a new Hindu temple. THE TOP FIVE 1. Report: Tesla wants t … | Continue reading
On January 15, as the first major winter storm of the season screeched across the U.S., Minneapolis’ Theodore Wirth Regional Park remained cold, hard, and — most stubbornly — brown. “We continue to be denied any measurable amount of snow,” read the park’s trail report for the day … | Continue reading
On January 15, as the first major winter storm of the season screeched across the U.S., Minneapolis’ Theodore Wirth Regional Park remained cold, hard, and — most stubbornly — brown. “We continue to be denied any measurable amount of snow,” read the park’s trail report for the day … | Continue reading
The year is 2030. For much of the past decade, the United States has taken aggressive action to fight climate change. After passing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the Biden administration regulated carbon pollution from power plants and cars and trucks. (Let’s also stipulat … | Continue reading
A new study casts doubt on the integrity of yet another type of carbon offset. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, investigated clean cookstove projects, in which companies distribute stoves that require less or cleaner types of fuel to people who cannot affo … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Wildfires are raging around the Colombian capital of Bogotá • Storm Isha is moving away from the U.K., but Storm Jocelyn is approaching • It’s 35 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in New Hampshire, where voters will head to the polls in the first presidential prim … | Continue reading
What makes Tesla, the world’s leading automaker by market cap, so valuable? The obvious answer would be that it sells hundreds of thousands of cars every quarter, for which it can command a tidy premium because of how much the Tesla name is worth. When it rolls out something new … | Continue reading
Last September, Jeanie Ward-Waller, a deputy director at California’s state transportation department, was called into her supervisor’s office and told she was being removed from her role, no explanation given. But Ward-Waller thinks she knows what happened. A few weeks earlier, … | Continue reading
Current conditions: An ice storm has snarled traffic in parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma • Rescue teams are working in freezing temperatures to rescue victims of a landslide in China • Half of Australia's states are under heat warnings.THE TOP FIVE1. Storm Isha slams UK and Europe … | Continue reading
Whatever’s on the official agenda at Davos, a.k.a. the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there’s always one item missing: Davos itself. As much as we love talking about what happens there, we love talking about what Davos means much, much more.Unfo … | Continue reading
The Underline in Miami is a 10-mile trail that will, over the next few years, repurpose 120 acres of unused land into an urban mobility corridor for pedestrians, dogs, bikers, and skateboarders. The route runs under the Metrorail rapid transit tracks from the financial district a … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of Western Australia could see temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit • Floods are forcing some U.K. supermarkets to sell smaller vegetables • Americans are bracing for another arctic blast. THE TOP FIVE 1. CO2 emissions could exceed 1.5 Celsius … | Continue reading
Sometimes to get what you want, all you have to do is ask. That’s what the organizations managing electricity grids across the country (and outside of it, but we’ll get to that) learned this week as plunging temperatures led to record-high electricity usage while lights (and heat … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of Indonesia are under water due to heavy rainfall • Tree branches are heavy with ice in Oregon • A no-burn alert is in place for Southern California as an atmospheric “lid” locks in smog. THE TOP FIVE1. Kerry warns U.S. election stakes for climate polic … | Continue reading
America’s electric car market has a new champion. The automaking alliance of Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Motors is now the second biggest seller of electric cars in the United States, according to new data released last week by Bloomberg BNEF.The two companies sold more than 117, … | Continue reading
America’s largest public power company just set a new record. The Tennessee Valley Authority said consumers used around 34,500 megawatts of electricity on Wednesday morning, about 1,000 megawatts more than its previous all-time record of around 33,500 megawatts in August 2007.Whi … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Nashville recorded sub-zero temperatures for only the second time since 1996 • Heavy rains left at least 11 dead in Rio de Janeiro • Invasive and deadly fire ants have been spotted “rafting” on Australian flood waters. THE TOP FIVE1. Climate denial tactics are … | Continue reading
A year ago, the Toyota Prius went from bulbous to badass. The hybrid icon got its most dramatic redesign in two decades, which dispensed with the familiar friendly and rounded look for an angular, almost menacing front end. The vehicle, which once again came in traditional hybrid … | Continue reading
The Texas grid has had two close calls already this week, leading ERCOT, the electricity market that covers about 90% of the state, to ask households, businesses, and government agencies to conserve energy due to high demand. These calls for moderation are nothing new — ERCOT iss … | Continue reading
Current conditions: New York City’s Central Park has officially broken its 701-day snow-free streak • Extreme flooding from Cyclone Belal submerged cars in the ocean island nation of Mauritius • It’s 24 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in Davos, where the 54th annual World Economic … | Continue reading
On Monday night, former PresidentDonald Trump handily won what will officially go down as the coldest caucus in Iowa’s history. The global warming jokes, naturally, wrote themselves. But in his freewheeling, name-dropping, teleprompter-free victory speech in Des Moines, Trump sho … | Continue reading
The news that Hertz is selling off one-third of its electric vehicle fleet after limited demand and costly repairs means U.S. consumers just got 20,000 more choices when shopping for a used EV. And with prices continuing to fall, now may be one of the best times to snag a pre-own … | Continue reading
“Climate change is a hoax” is soooo 2016. In recent years, Republicans have gotten more savvy in their attacks on climate change — and, by proxy, on the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate legislation passed in 2022. These days, it’s less the science of global warming t … | Continue reading
Impulse Labs debuted its much anticipated induction stove at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Coming to grips with this high-tech culinary wonder is a little bit like that meme of an expanding brain. At first glance, the Impulse Cooktop is just a sexy-looking … | Continue reading
Almost a third of global container traffic goes through the Suez Canal, and around 8% of the world’s oil and gas. Because of its pivotal location between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal — and thus the Red Sea, which feeds into the canal — connects the huge … | Continue reading
A year ago, before a vacation to see the eruption of the Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea, I found myself scrolling through my rental car options. A few users on the car-sharing service Turo offered up their Tesla Model 3s, and I was tempted by the idea of driving electric on holiday jus … | Continue reading
Current conditions: An “Arctic outbreak” will bring bitter cold to much of the U.S. this weekend • 109 weather stations in China have broken mid-January heat records • Nearly a quarter of humanity now lives in drought conditions. THE TOP FIVE1. Red Sea tensions hit Tesla Berlin f … | Continue reading
Edie Dillman lives in the first certified passive house in New Mexico. She and her architect husband, Jonah Stanford, are founders of a company called B.Public Prefab that builds and supplies prefabricated panels for highly energy efficient homes. So when The Curse began to air … | Continue reading
It’s not often you hear a sitting U.S. senator invite the public to sue the federal government — especially when the president is a member of their own party. But most sitting senators aren’t Joe Manchin.Manchin continued his crusade against the Biden administration’s implementat … | Continue reading
The consumer electronics show in Las Vegas formally known as CES has evolved beyond a showcase for ever-larger screens, laptops, and niche gadgets looking to make it into big box retailers. CES is now, among other things, a full-fledged auto show, with the world's largest automak … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The parade of winter storms continues today across much of the U.S. • The Congo River is at its highest level in more than 60 years after intense rains • This weekend's NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins could be the coldest game in … | Continue reading