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Amid overwhelming news — from Mueller indictments to terrorist driver in New York City — the Facebook take on Americans’ polarization in 2016 as part of its appeal to advertisers (including those ads sent From Moscow with Love) is quite striking. News: Facebook 2016 elections team provided advertisers with a blueprint of a divided America, […]

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Friday night, at my niece’s birthday party,the conversation turned (not started by me … surprisingly) to news from Germany: the insects are disappearing. abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years In this serious study (peer-reviewed publication: More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas), that […]

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Yesterday, Ralph Northam released a new advertisement in the Virginia governor’s race simply entitled Environment. The advertisement opens: Protecting our environment is one of the most important things we can do for our kids. And as a doctor, I trust the science on climate change. While perhaps tired of “doctor” as seemingly lead for everything […]

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The Trump Administration’s decision to undermine America’s economy and future prospects by its announced intent to reverse the Clean Power Plan and expand its denial of that Chinese Hoax, climate change made headlines and created an imperative for serious news coverage.  Last evening, the PBS News Hour — often the gold standard when it comes […]

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The U.S. military is designed to operate amid the worst disaster(s) imaginable: modern warfare of all types. The vast military-industrial machine supports this — providing multiple options of weapons (that creates disaster?) to housing for difficult environments (tents) to mobile power generation (diesel generators, solar panels, …) to communications systems to water purification to .. […]

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Post Maria, Puerto Rico’s electricity system is in tatters. Puerto Rico’s electricity system, prior to Maria, heavily relied on centralized diesel power generation with above-ground power transmission: very high cost electricity, dependent on continued fossil-fuel imports, with great vulnerability to disruption. Post disaster, thoughtful policy and efforts would seek to maximize value in the Disaster […]

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As a rare diversion from ‘energy’ focus, here is a story that should bring a smile to anyone concerned about science, science education (STEM), empowering women in science, entomology, how social-networking is changing the world, and, well, good human-interest stories.  In other words, well, likely most of us. Short and sweet: an 8-year old girl […]

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Writ large, there is relatively small overlap between “budget hawks” and “climate hawks”.  Yet, as highlighted in a just released Oil Change International (OCI) report, there is reason for the two to find common ground (beyond a carbon fee/tax). OCI identified $20B in Subsidies … where the government gives financial incentives to artificially lower the […]

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