Grist: “The EPA website got the basics of climate science right. Until last week.” What took them so long? The Trump administration purged 80 pages of factual information about the deteriorating climate—including the concept that humans are responsible.Fa

CanaryMedia: “Nuclear power’s loud-but-quiet year.” In terms of press releases, huge American governmental support, + pledges to build new nuclear power—2025 was a gangbusters year.

CanaryMedia: “Chart: EVs are ascendant — and gas cars are past their prime.” Many Americans suffer from a misapprehension about the surging success of electric vehicles globally.

AAAS: “Two ancient humans, including famed ‘Iceman,’ had cancer-causing virus.” A warrior’s tale: ‘Some 5000 years ago, the corpse of a man known as Ötzi, “the Iceman,” froze in the Alps along what’s now the Austrian-Italian border.’

Oilprice.com: “Why Christmas Is the Most Stressful Week for the Diesel Market.” Santa runs on diesel, not reindeer. “Every year, the global holiday economy depends on a short, unforgiving surge in distillate consumption that powers trucks, ports, warehouses, refrigeration, + backup generation.” its

AAAS: “Watch these raindrops turn into rolling ‘sandballs’” Serendipity whispered: “Research began when scientists hiking in the Swiss Alps made a chance observation as they walked in the rain: tiny balls rolling down a steep slope of soil—intrigued—they filmed the balls with a phone.”

EnvironmentalResearchLetters: “The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions.” This post is more for citizens of developed economies.

CanaryMedia: “Chart: Clean energy remains dominant in the US — despite Trump.” For those who have assumed the president has successfully squashed renewable energy in this country, this may prove interesting.

Wikipedia: “Saint George and the Dragon.” There are a couple of reasons for this post. First + foremost, today, December 23rd, is the date memorializing this legend. Second, there have been many “Georges” in my own lineage, + I am one of them—though I am usually recognized by my nickname “Sandy.”

CleanTechnica: "Oilfield Binge & Purge: Another Reason To Ditch Fossil Fuels." The state of Oklahoma "has done a good job of exploiting its wind energy resources, but its deep roots in the oil + gas industry keep popping up to haunt its people with polluted air, water, + soil."

ColumbiaClimateSchool: “Ancient Plant, Insect Bits Confirm Greenland Melted in Recent Geologic Past.” At heart this is a cautionary tale. “The story of Greenland keeps getting greener—and scarier.”

YaleClimateConnections: “A slow-motion water crisis is unfolding around the world.” England is not the first place that comes to mind when considering areas experiencing desiccation. Dry

AAAS: “Heat-seeking beetles drawn to plants that glow in infrared.” There exist novel pollinators like lizards, geckos, skinks + many more.

YourLocalEpidemiologist: “Mass shootings outnumber annual days in U.S.” Katelyn Jetelina doesn’t mince words. “As of December 14, the U.S. has had 391 mass shootings—more than the number of days in the year—for the seventh consecutive year…75 of these occurred at schools.” Bar

AAAS: “Seafloor telecom cable transformed into giant earthquake detector.” Seismic listening posts are sparse on the vast + remote ocean floor.

TheNation: “White Farmers Are Getting a Taste of Their Own Medicine.” Farmers may lose as much as $44 billion in profits this year, in large part because of White House policies.

CanaryMedia: “Chart: Hungary is leading the world in solar adoption.” Initially a surprise, nowhere in the chart do you see China, tropical countries or the U.S., until you check + see that this bar chart represents proportionate shares of generation, not absolute quantities.

CleanTechnica: “Wind Power Gets The Last Laugh As Trump Fades Into The Mists Of Twilight.” Back in January the U.S. president launched his attack against offshore wind turbines with a shot across the bow, but the writing of defeat is already on the wall.Unique

Reuters: “Texas makes clean power breakthrough as solar output overtakes coal.” In 2025, Texas’ main power system looks set to generate more power from solar farms than coal plants during calendar year, marking key new energy milestone for largest [purposely isolated] power network in U.S.

AAAS: “Replenishing sapped groundwater could trigger small earthquakes.” A boom in aquifer injection projects could unlock long-quiet faults. Along the James River, near the Atlantic Ocean, 10 stainless steel pipes penetrate hundreds of meters into the silts + sands beneath southeastern Virginia.

AAAS: “Warm, humid ‘atmospheric rivers’ threaten Antarctica.” In May 2009, a strange weather pattern swept across Princess Elisabeth station, a remote Belgian research outpost in East Antarctica.

AAAS: “The strongest spiderweb on Earth is spun only by females.” Bark spiders spin webs that stretch across entire rivers in Madagascar; their silk is stronger than steel—and the toughest on Earth.

YourLocalEpidemiologist: “Be careful comparing the U.S. to other countries.” Setting aside the folderol coming out of the DHHS, the reliable, vetted, scientific recommendation in the U.S. + Canada is that everybody above 6 months of age should be vaccinated against coronavirus,

AAAS: “Medieval volcano may have indirectly sparked Europe’s Black Death.” Historians argue the Black Death, from infection by Yersinia pestis, is the single most deadly documented pandemic in human history.

AAAS: "This frog likes to feast on murder hornets." The black-spotted pond frog is native to Japan. In a study published on 3 December in Ecosphere researchers have shown the species...chows down on a surprising insect in its habitat: the northern giant hornet, also called the “murder hornet.”

CanaryMedia: “Electricity is too expensive. Here are three ways to fix that.” Their thesis: “Lawmakers nationwide can lower power bills by cutting utility profits, rewarding the companies for boosting efficiency, and unleashing solar and storage.”

FinancialTimes: "‘Too hot to handle’: climate change pushing Arab region to limits, says WMO." An inaugural UN agencies report shows a stretch of 22 countries is warming at twice the global average. "The Arab region [is] being pushed to its limits by intense heatwaves and severe droughts."

Electrek: “Amid affordability crisis, White House plans to raise your fuel costs by $23B.” According to Reuters, White House will formally announce its planned hike in US fuel costs by $23 B today.

AAAS: “‘Game changer’: System to track small animals from space takes flight—again.” Ironic but not uncommon that geopolitical events abet or hinder science.

Grist: "Scorching Saturdays: The rising heat threat inside football stadiums." Start here: "Excessive heat + more frequent medical incidents at college football stadiums in the South could be a warning sign for universities across the country."

YaleClimateConnections: “Jeffrey Epstein, climate change doubter,” Note that the accompanying photo was ‘unofficially installed’ in UK back in July. Recently the U.S. House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents from the Epstein estate, including thousands of his emails.

ACEEE: “Study: New Heat Pump Type Is Lowest-Cost Decarbonization Option for Big Apartment Buildings.” Report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) “recommends that, in most cases, building owners seeking to decarbonize should consider these heat pumps.

CanaryMedia: “Chart: Solar and wind are meeting—and exceeding—new power demand.” In the third quarter of this yr the world added more wind + solar production [not just capacity] of electricity than the increase in demand.

YaleClimateConnections: “U.S. dams, levees, stormwater, and wastewater systems get D to D+ grades, need almost $1 trillion in upgrades.”

We do have a holiday tomorrow, so I will not post today or tomorrow. After all, some of our grandkids are coming in. But I will favor you with my favorite single-frame cartoon for Thanksgiving ever. Enjoy, see you all in a couple of days.

ClimateCentral: "November Warming, Thanksgiving Extremes." Temperatures are rising across the U.S., with this new graphic showing local November temperature trends and Thanksgiving extremes in 247 U.S. cities.

YaleClimateConnections: “What should you do during a flood? Stay out of the water.” In the U.S. an average of 88 people drown in floods annually, according to the National Weather Service. There are also risks of infectious disease, electrocution + wildlife encounters.

Oilprice.com: “Nuclear’s Costly Comeback Meets Harsh Market Reality.” Website for yrs been a strong supporter of conservative politics + Big Oil,; interesting to see here of all places a statement about the myth of nuclear as “secure, clean, and cheap” collapsing under [purely economic] scrutiny.

CanaryMedia: “Chart: Batteries are set to surge onto the US grid.” Research firm BloombergNEF projects that over next 5 yrs the U.S. will build almost 6 gigawatts [GW] of utility-scale batteries.

Electrek: "Electricity is about to become the new base currency and China figured it out." Fred Lambert posted an insightful commentary just this morning. For most of human history, 'currency' was a direct claim on tangible, productive output.

ElDiario: “Europe trials triangular floating PV—65 kW system over water delivers unexpected results.” The Dutch company SolarDuck’s floating solar “islands” bear a resemblance to tiny offshore oil rigs because they intentionally mimic that strong design.

AAAS: “High-resolution climate model forecasts a wet, turbulent future.” Let me start with a story I heard yesterday. One of my writing groups meets remotely, weekly, including 2 participants who live in eastern Florida + in Barbados, about 1600 miles apart.

AAAS: “Research linking gut microbes to autism is deeply flawed, critics say.” Last week, the U.S.-based health nonprofit Wellcome Leap ‘opened applications for a $50 M program focused on a controversial idea.’

CanaryMedia: "XGS Energy says its advanced geothermal tech is ready to scale up." Next-generation geothermal projects currently in development fall into one of three categories.

RadiofreeEurope/RadioLiberty: “Iran’s Water Crisis Nears Point Of No Return.” Iran faces a severe water crisis due to decades of mismanagement and the worst drought in 60 yrs.

Newsweek: “US Decline In Religion Among Biggest In World.” New polling shows the U.S. has experienced one of the largest ever declines in religiosity globally over the past decade, contrasted with results from the World Poll which questioned people in 160 countries.

AAAS: “Warming oceans are pushing harmful algal blooms into polar waters.” When I think of saltwater algal blooms, I usually contemplate warming tropical + subtropical waters.

Could not resist this cartoon by Tom Toro this morning. Crushed for time, will just drop in this witty single panel, all the time I have. My motivation is also based on the fact that there is a revision to our heat pump taking place as I write.

CanaryMedia: “This startup wants to build pumped hydro storage in the ocean.” The Italian energy company SIZABLE ENERGY is testing a system using inflatable reservoirs—1 on the surface—1 other several hundred meters below on the ocean floor—shuttling hypersaline water between the two reservoirs.

AAAS: “The twisted secret behind a chameleon’s oddball eyes.” No, this is not the skull of a rabbit, but rather a chameleon. Recall that rabbits have cartilage in their ears, not bones. But chameleons have pretty unique eyes.