Sweet Lightning

Sweet Lightning

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Science Is Not Enough

Science Is Not Enough

The gap between peer-reviewed certainty and public indifference creates problems.

Photograph of front of 1928 21-storey brick-clad high rise building, from ground perspective, looking straight up.

Historical Perspective

Oil Shocks and Microchips

How buildings learned to stop wasting and start thinking

This is our little example of how media behaviour can attract attention. We've put up a picture of a big, ugly vulture to get everybody's attention. Hey, we made you look!

Modelling Media Misbehaviour: A First Step

A new paper helps us understand why media behave so badly so much of the time.

Cook Islands: A Cautionary Tale

Cook Islands: A Cautionary Tale

Canaries and coal mines and coconuts!

Solar panels and wind turbines on a grassy field.

Energy Grid and Beyond

How did your get your coffee today?

Two-axis graph, showing % of net energy out as a function of EROI. EROI starting at 50 and declining precipitously below EROI of about 5

Paid-members only

EROI and The Net Energy Cliff

Concept Source: Princeton Public Library. “Misinformation, Disinformation & Malinformation: A Guide.”

Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation, and Distrust of Climate Science

Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation are forms of rampant pollution of the information ecosystem. This pollution is toxic, promoting distrust in science, and holding back efforts to combat climate change.

Tiny green frog, doing her best to match a green leaf.

How Not To Be a Boiled Frog

A giant clump of electrical transmission hardware. Looks a little like Dr. Frankenstein's setup, TBH.

Greenhouse Gases

Efficiency Gains via Electrification, or Why We Should Electrify Everything We Can

Decarbonizing the economy by electrifying everything in it will mean we need less total energy.

Figure 1: Global coal exporters.

The World Coal Export Market

It's a dirty business. But somebody always decides to do it.

Climate Train

When traveling what is the "best" climate change choice?

Black and white picture of very large cylindrical blast furnace in Pittsburgh Steel Company Monessen works

Steel

Steel is one of the pillars of modern civilization but its production emits far more CO2 than the aviation industry. Material substitutes for steel simply don’t exist on the kind of scale needed. Reducing the carbon impact of steel production faces major technical and economic challenges.

The Day Bores Became Exciting

The Day Bores Became Exciting

Oilfield down-hole skills may lead to viable large-scale closed-loop geothermal. It's a trend to watch.

Australia and China are tied for third among nations with major coal deposits. They each have 13% of the world's reserves.

Australia's bad coal habit

Can Ticks Invade Canada Faster?

Can Ticks Invade Canada Faster?

Some North American tick species seem to be expanding northward more quickly than their physiological cold tolerance allows. A new paper proposes an explanation.

Seismogram of 1906 San Francisco earthquake, recorded in Germany, showing arrival of both compressional P waves and S shear waves, as vertical squiggles on a horizontal time axis

Resilience Borne of Disaster

After experiencing disasters, many places around the world are rebuilding to be more resilient in future. We can learn from the experience of others how to assess our local hazards and risks and upgrade our infrastructure, so as to lessen the damage from future events.

Trees

Trees are beautiful and maybe more. Updated: July 2, 2025

Kitchen counter with open bag of coffee beans, on its side with beans spilling out, next to manual coffee grinder and French press. Behind are ceramic canisters and teapots.

Coffee - Climate Change Gets Personal

Coffee – many of us can’t live without our daily fix, but what is the environmental footprint of our daily cup(s), and what impact does a warming planet have on the future of coffee production?

Map of the western hemisphere showing the flyover path of the International Space Station, with markers to show EMIT-detected plume sites.

Paid-members only

Directly View ISS Methane Data

Hot coffee in a 6 oz. espresso cup.

In Hot Water

To talk climate, we need to talk class, comfort—and coffee.

Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaics, a technique that combines various forms of agricultural production underneath, or adjacent to, photovoltaic installations, provides multiple, synergistic benefits: agricultural, ecological, and financial. The worldwide scope of agrivoltaics is currently small, but is growing.

Flyby

You take a good, hard look at Sagan's "pale blue dot." You learn surprising things.

Hydrogen Economy - hype or hope?

Flooding

With climate-adaptive approaches to flood management and wetland conservation, every dollar spent yields many dollars back in flood damage reduction.

Hey, we're just following (customer) orders