Author: cne4h

Over the past decade, an abandoned golf course in Houston's Clear Lake area has been transformed into an urban oasis called Discovery Green. Community members go there to walk and bike along six miles of trails, past ponds and wetlands filled with birds and other wildlife. But essentially, the area was designed to serve a more practical purpose: protecting homes from flooding. David Sharp is with the Exploration Green Conservancy, a nonprofit that helps support the project. Sharp: “We have a lot of homes in the neighborhood and any heavy rain can cause flooding, water intrusion, which of course is…

Francis Menton The climate and energy fields are large enough to merit providing the incoming Trump administration with its own ideas. The Bidens are off track here, and the topic is far beyond what I can cover. I have to stick to some highlights. communication. As I pointed out in my last article, changing the previous administration’s communications approach should be a simple and obvious priority. However, the Trump team did a poor job on this issue the first time. Climate and energy topics are ubiquitous on the websites of dozens of federal agencies. Let's look at just a few…

Steve Gorham “In 2015, NASA scientists predicted that the ozone hole would be half closed by 2020. But that didn’t happen. Other scientists predicted that the hole wouldn’t start disappearing until 2040 or later. But this The longer the hole lasts, the more likely it is that the ozone layer is dominated by natural factors, rather than human CFC emissions. Another year has passed, and the stubborn ozone hole over Antarctica still hasn’t disappeared. Data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) show that the ozone hole is roughly the same size as it was over the past 30…

NWS National Weather and Climate Forecast Center, Maryland From MSE Creative Consulting Guest post by Mike Smith I wish to provide President-elect Trump with recommendations regarding NOAA and the National Weather Service (NWS) as significant changes are needed in the future. Some types of NWS forecasts are getting less In terms of accuracy, the quality of our weather computer models has dropped to fourth place. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) may have seemed like a good idea in 1970, it was actually a disaster for meteorology. There hasn’t been a weather-oriented administrator in 50 years (!). The…

Picture this: COP29 is the annual climate circus where world leaders come together to throw their weight behind carbon emissions. Like a muscle car that consumes premium gas. Next comes the highlight: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev steps up to the microphone and declares that oil and gas are “God's gift to his country.” You can't make this up. It's like hosting a vegetarian potluck and having the guest of honor arrive with a plate of prime rib. Petro-state 'climate' meeting Let’s start with the hilarious venue choice. Azerbaijan is one of the countries where crude oil is more than just…

There is growing evidence that women play a key role in achieving climate goals, both as leaders and beneficiaries of advancing climate solutions. There is therefore an urgent need for more investment in gender- and climate-sensitive deals. However, mainstreaming a gender perspective into climate tools often encounters many obstacles. This is particularly evident in blended finance markets, where only 22% of the 550 or so climate blended finance transactions in the Convergence Historical Transaction Database (HDD) are gender-sensitive, a much lower proportion than the overall trend in blended finance markets. 31% of deals promote gender equality. Recognizing this, the Catalytic…

Days before last week’s election, Bernie Sanders issued a dire warning to voters: “If Donald Trump is elected, the fight against climate change is over.” [emphasis, links added] He has this right. Climate change fanaticism was effectively on display in last week's vote. The green energy agenda was soundly defeated. It turns out that the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who voted for Trump are not very interested in the temperature of the earth in 50 years. They are too busy paying bills. This result shouldn't be too surprising. Every poll in recent years has shown climate change ranking…

From the Daily Skeptic by Tilak Doshi Another year, another Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is about to be held. The 29th Conference of the Parties is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The event started yesterday and will last for 11 days. My view of last year’s UN climate conference, which was attended by a record 86,000 delegates, was actually pessimistic (some would say cynical): Apart from high-sounding communiqués, more fanfare from climate NGOs and alarmist headlines from traditional media, COP28 in Dubai will most likely not produce anything of…

It's hard to know exactly when it happened. Looking back on those years, when we were worried about aerosol cans and global warming, it was almost impossible to see our transformation. [emphasis, links added] When did we move from relatively legitimate concerns about polar bears on Arctic ice floes and an adult responsibility to pollute the planet less and protect it more to one Blind panic about something we know very little about? There was a time when joining hippie causes like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace would elicit a laugh at the Sunday lunch table. Those who do…

Diesel RV sales will cease early next year in several states due to California's new climate rules, according to RVtravel. [emphasis, links added] According to RVtravel, RV sales in California, Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey will be prohibited if they do not meet certain emissions requirements set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB revised its advanced clean truck regulations on October 24, Requires all vehicles weighing more than 8,500 pounds to be zero-emission. According to RVtravel, RV owners in these six states will not be allowed to register recreational vehicles (RVs) that do not comply…