You won’t hear me say this often, but Donald Trump kind of sort of has a point. On Monday, the former president and presumed Republican nominee rebutted headlines that claimed he’d predicted a “‘bloodbath’ if he loses” the November election. To be sure, “bloodbath” isn’t a word y … | Continue reading
Today, if a company claims to run on “100% clean power,” that generally means it’s adding up its electricity use for the entire year, then offsetting any fossil fuel-generated electricity through the purchase of renewable energy certificates, a.k.a. RECs. So a New York-based firm … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Flash floods inundated parts of northern Iraq • Fire weather watches are in effect across several states, from Iowa to Maryland • Today marks the official start of spring. THE TOP FIVE 1. Just 7 countries met WHO pollution limits in 2023 A region’s air should … | Continue reading
Pretty much every startup that’s building machines to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stash it underground has claimed it will be able to get its costs down to less than $100 per ton — eventually. But a new contender in the race, a San Francisco-based company called S … | Continue reading
In 2015, just one state had a goal of reaching 100% clean energy; today, over half the American population lives in states that do. That progress is thanks in large part to voters, who’ve prioritized electing candidates that support renewable energy, electric vehicles, climate ju … | Continue reading
The early adopters of DIY solar had to pay a premium to put panels on their rooftops, sure — but at least they had a simple way to recoup that investment. Every kilowatt of self-generated sun power was one they didn’t have to buy from the power company. And for houses with big so … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Freeze warnings are in place across many states in the south east • Troplical Cyclone Megan made landfall in Australia • A neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro reportedly recorded a temperature of 144 degrees Fahrenheit as Brazil swelters in an extreme heat wave. TH … | Continue reading
The political coalition that has been assembled in support of advanced geothermal is bipartisan, but uni-regional: If you drew a broad strip from Las Vegas to Albuquerque and then dragged it north to the Canadian border, you would envelop Utah and Idaho (not to mention Arizona an … | Continue reading
The political coalition that has been assembled in support of advanced geothermal is bipartisan, but uni-regional: If you drew a broad strip from Las Vegas to Albuquerque and then dragged it north to the Canadian border, you would envelop Utah and Idaho (not to mention Arizona an … | Continue reading
Few people have shaped Bidenomics more than Brian Deese. From 2021 to 2023, Deese led the National Economic Council at the White House, serving as President Joe Biden’s top economic aide. He’s now an Innovation Fellow at MIT, where he helps lead the new Clean Investment Monitor p … | Continue reading
When the Rivian R3 rolled onto the stage in Orange County, car fans saw a flicker of the past. The truncated EV reminded automotive Twitter and Threads of throwback off-road hatchbacks with unusual shapes — the Lancia Delta, AMC Gremlin, Lada Niva, and even the maligned Yugo. It … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Deadly tornadoes ripped through Ohio and Indiana overnight • Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai is the most polluted city in the world today • The Indian Wells tennis tournament in California was suspended after a swarm of bees descended on the court. THE TOP FIV … | Continue reading
The Department of Energy wants YOU to purchase carbon removal. Well, maybe not you, personally, but your city, state, or employer. And as an incentive, it’s turning the buying process into the equivalent of an arcade game, inviting companies to try to make it to the top of a new … | Continue reading
As President Joe Biden prepares to run for re-election, one fact has eluded much notice: His climate change policies are pretty popular. In an exclusive Heatmap poll of 1,000 Americans conducted by Benenson Strategy Group late last year, most respondents backed the core ideas beh … | Continue reading
Ganesh Paudel packs a wad of chewing tobacco as he talks about the rhinoceros attack. “When the rhino charged, we were in a boat,” he tells me. “The rhino was sitting in the water, then it hit me and broke my knee, broke the hand of another guide and gored a tourist” — he points … | Continue reading
Current conditions: New wildfires are spreading along Chile’s Pacific Coast • Flooding has killed more than 60 people in Afghanistan over the last three weeks • It will be 70 degrees Fahrenheit today in Indianapolis, Indiana, where signs of spring have emerged 14 days early. THE … | Continue reading
When Talen Energy, which owns a 90% interest in the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Northeastern Pennsylvania, announced it was selling a datacenter site adjacent to its power plant to Amazon Web Services, it raised some eyebrows in the energy world. The surprise was not becau … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Storms dropped hail stones big enough to leave craters in the ground in Argentina • Denver is expecting more than a foot of snow • A wildfire outbreak is possible in Texas and Oklahoma. THE TOP FIVE1. IEA: Methane emissions from energy still high but could fal … | Continue reading
Few people have shaped Bidenomics more than Brian Deese. From 2021 to 2023, Deese led the National Economic Council at the White House, serving as President Joe Biden’s top economic aide during such events as the post-pandemic recovery, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the passa … | Continue reading
Trina Messer knew the weather in Dallas-Forth Worth had been unusually warm this year, but she hadn’t anticipated needing her clay-colored yarn in February. “Today we are expecting a high in the 90s!!!,” she marveled in a Facebook update last week, adding regretfully, “I was hopi … | Continue reading
It is the great Faustian bargain of the American presidency: To lead the world’s most powerful nation, you have to give up driving forever.For some leaders, this sacrifice can be excruciating. Given the opportunity to climb behind the wheel of a Mack truck in 2017, then-President … | Continue reading
New York, NY: Climate news website Heatmap News was named Hottest in Sustainability on Adweek’s 2024 Media Hot List, released today. Adweek’s Hot List honors the best in media across TV, media, digital, and tech. Writing about Heatmap, Adweek wrote: “Less than a year later, it’s … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Tropical storm Filipo will make landfall on Mozambique’s coast today • Morel season has begun in parts of the Midwest • It is cold and cloudy in Stockholm, where police forcibly removed climate activst Greta Thunberg from the entrance to parliament. THE TOP FI … | Continue reading
Some Americans install heat pumps because they care about climate change. But most people aren’t going to make the switch until it makes sense economically. Pinpointing where and for whom heat pumps make sense is surprisingly tricky because U.S. housing is so diverse, with a wide … | Continue reading
Current conditions: It will be very blustery across the northeast today • Flooding and landslides killed 26 people in Indonesia • Catholics in drought-stricken Barcelona celebrated the coming of rain by carrying a figure of the Holy Christ through the city’s old town. THE TOP FIV … | Continue reading
People really hate inflation. Fortunately, prices are no longer rising nearly as rapidly as they were in 2021 and 2022. However, we may be on the cusp of a longer epoch of periodic inflation caused by climate change, one of the biggest long-term threats to price stability. The Fe … | Continue reading
Rivian’s “one more thing” turned out to be the one big thing. At the end of its Orange County event to showcase R2, the $45,000 SUV meant to carry the EV brand into the mainstream, founder R.J. Scaringe rolled out a surprise (or two): The previously unannounced, even smaller R3 a … | Continue reading
I can’t quite believe it: Today is the one-year anniversary of Heatmap. And what a year it’s been.When I left my old job as editor of The Week, climate change had a reputation among journalists as being the one scary subject that nobody wanted to read. It was too depressing, too … | Continue reading
Let’s get the big news out of the way: The new Rivian cars are very cool. The airy R2 is a two-row SUV that, if released today, would rival anything else on the American electric vehicle market; Rivian claims that its entry level trim will cost $45,000 and that it will get more t … | Continue reading
It was another Emily who wrote, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” but Emily Raboteau’s Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “the Apocalypse” builds on that notion in a fresh and literal fashion. The collection of essays, out March 12, is loosely structured around Raboteau’s … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Most of Alabama is under a flood watch • It will be so hot in Southern Australia this weekend that special bins have been set up to collect dead bats • Hazardous smog choked 54 of Thailand’s 77 provinces this week. THE TOP FIVE 1. Biden talks up energy and eco … | Continue reading
Would the IRA by any other name be as sweet to voters? It’s a valid question. President Biden’s final State of the Union address before the November election represented as good a chance as any for him to make his pitch to the American people — and he did so without ever saying t … | Continue reading
The price of Bitcoin set a new all time high this week, crossing the $69,000 mark on Tuesday before falling back down to around $67,500 by Thursday afternoon. That almost certainly means Bitcoin’s energy usage is rising, too — although any chance of getting a precise idea of how … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Red flag fire warnings are in place across West Texas • Heavy rainfall caused extreme flooding in parts of West Java • Tourists in Morocco are disappointed to find the country’s public baths have been closed three days a week due to severe drought. THE TOP FIV … | Continue reading
The Securities and Exchange Commission will vote today on a highly anticipated rule that would require companies to disclose information about their climate-related risks to investors. The rule was first proposed two years ago, and since then it has undergone some dramatic change … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Texas’ Smokehouse Creek Fire is now 37% contained • Parts of Oklahoma and Texas could see large hail today • An excessive heat warning is in place for Bangkok where the heat index hit 107 degrees Fahrenheit.THE TOP FIVE1. SEC set to vote on corporate climate d … | Continue reading
For a few weeks now, Heatmap’s staff writer, Emily Pontecorvo, has been trying to figure out if installing rooftop solar panels on your home actually reduces carbon pollution in a systematic way. In other words: If you own a home, and install solar panels on it, are you doing any … | Continue reading
On Monday afternoon, a satellite the size of a washing machine hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket and was launched into orbit. MethaneSAT, as the new satellite is called, is the latest to join more than a dozen other instruments currently circling the Earth monitoring emissions of … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A tumbleweed invasion nearly buried some houses in Utah • Storms triggered floods, avalanches, and tornadoes across Italy • California’s snowpack is above normal levels for the first time this year.THE TOP FIVE1. Amazon Web Services buys nuclear-powered data c … | Continue reading
Current conditions: California’s Sierra Nevada range is expecting another snowstorm • Dangerous smog has settled on Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi • Drought-stricken Sicily has declared a state of emergency.THE TOP FIVE1. John Kerry nears last day as climate envoy This week marks the … | Continue reading
Climate policy has been all over the place lately thanks to pressure from interest groups, pre-election jitters, and the plausibility of a re-elected President Donald Trump laying waste to existing climate policy.But further in the future, beyond the ups and downs of electoral po … | Continue reading
It’s a strange sight: Ford F-150 Lightning trucks and Mustang Mach-E crossovers lined up at a Tesla Supercharger, plugged into the familiar red-and-white posts. After years of driving a Model 3, and greeting only other Teslas at our charging stops, I can’t quite get used to the v … | Continue reading
Let’s start with a quick recap: In late-January, the Biden administration turned the energy world on its ear by announcing that it would pause approvals of new export facilities for liquified natural gas — a decision greeted with joy by activists and indignation by lawmakers. A f … | Continue reading
Current conditions: England and Wales had their warmest February on record • An avalanche watch has been issued for Tahoe Basin • It will be warm and windy this weekend in the Texas Panhandle, where the Smokehouse Creek Fire is still burning out of control.THE TOP FIVE1. EPA to r … | Continue reading
Congress appears to be very close to passing the first climate law of 2024. But don’t look for the word ‘climate‘ in it.On Wednesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to pass the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, a bill designed to update nuclear energy laws and regulations to better … | Continue reading
China’s car industry has been on a tear lately. Last year, China became the world’s largest auto exporter, and its home-grown carmaker BYD recently eclipsed Tesla as the world’s No. 1 maker of electrified vehicles. If China were following a playbook first written by Japanese or K … | Continue reading
New York’s offshore wind industry is back, or at least back in contract. Two offshore wind projects, Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind, were awarded, respectively, to developers Equinor and the partnership of Orsted and Eversource. These two projects, which would amount to 1,700 meg … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Massive wildfires are still burning in the Texas Panhandle • Thailand’s “Royal Rainmaking” program starts today, in which planes seed clouds to induce artificial rain • It will be cold but sunny in Washington, DC, where a special hearing on the rights of peopl … | Continue reading