July 3rd, 2014
New research shows that more extreme climate conditions due to global warming are already affecting more than 250 national parks, including the Mojave National Preserve, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park and Mammoth Cave National Park. Recent temperatures at Grand Canyon National Park have been at the extreme end of historical averages. Read More
June 5th, 2014
The EPA’s new power plant carbon standards are a potential climate game changer for a whole lot of reasons, given how much fossil-fueled power plants contribute to global warming. And in her speech unveiling the proposed standards on Monday, in talking about what global warming means for the power sector, rather than the other way around, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy nailed it. Read More
April 21st, 2014
Our nation’s aging electricity system is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events — including flooding, extreme heat, drought, and wildfires — which often cause power outages. Today UCS released a new report called Power Failure, which describes how extreme weather events are likely to increase in the future as global temperatures continue to rise, with major consequences for the electricity sector. Read More
May 29th, 2013
The climate debate in Washington is stuck in a rut. Last week, we saw politicians playing another round of the climate change blame game. This time the topic was tornadoes. But connections between extreme weather and climate change are a scientific question, not a political one. Read More
May 22nd, 2013
In the wake of extreme weather events, people often ask scientists if they can be linked to climate change. Naturally, questions are being asked about tornadoes following the tragic losses suffered in the region of Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013 after an EF5 Tornado. Read More
April 12th, 2013
Tomorrow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will likely miss a legal deadline for finalizing its draft carbon standard for curtailing carbon emissions from new power plants. Power plants are the single largest stationary source of U.S. global warming emissions. Cutting those emissions is critical to slowing the magnitude and pace of climate change. Furthermore, an ambitious standard is achievable because we have abundant cleaner forms of energy. So why the delay? Read More
February 6th, 2013
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to soon finalize carbon standards for new power plants, bolstering the existing market trend away from building new coal-fired power plants. Next up is the carbon standard for existing power plants – a major source of U.S. global warming emissions. Designing this standard with the flexibility to include renewable energy and efficiency as compliance options can help achieve deep emissions reductions at an affordable cost. Read More
October 31st, 2012
As Hurricane Sandy approached Virginia Beach, I watched churning surf form a troublesome backdrop to two skateboarders harnessing the wind to propel themselves rapidly along the boardwalk. Those same winds were piling up water to form a dangerous storm surge and portended a powerful blow that would ultimately cause widespread devastation throughout the region. Since that moment, I have been asked many questions about Hurricane Sandy. Here are answers to the most common ones. Read More
July 16th, 2012
The heat gripping the United States this month has been relentless. And if that weren’t enough, hurricane season is upon us. How does the scientific evidence stack up over the past decades regarding how these extreme events are changing? And how much influence does human-caused climate change have on these events? We created an infographic to serve as a quick reference of the current state of scientific understanding.
UPDATE July 18th (see at bottom of post)
November 29th, 2011
Often when a noteworthy or devastating extreme event disrupts lives, I am often asked, could this be due in part to climate change? Read More
