EarthTalk - Will the demand for air conditioning push us over the edge of cataclysmic warming?
As innocuous as it may seem, the common household air conditioner is a significant contributor to climate change.
climate
Fiona hits Atlantic Canada: Climate change means the region will see more frequent storms
Atlantic Canada has been left reeling from the impacts of one of the largest and most dangerous ocean storms to ever hit the region.
Desalinating seawater sounds easy, but there are cheaper and more sustainable ways to meet people’s water needs
Coastal urban centers around the world are urgently looking for new, sustainable water sources as their local supplies become less reliable. In the U.S., the issue is especially pressing in California, which is coping with a record-setting, multidecadal drought.
US Senate ratifies treaty to phase down climate-warming HFCs from refrigerators and air conditioners – but what will replace them this time?
The U.S. Senate voted to ratify an international treaty on Sept. 21, 2022, and join 137 other countries in agreeing to phase out a class of climate-warming chemicals that are widely used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps.
Looking back at America’s summer of heat, floods and climate change: Welcome to the new abnormal
The summer of 2022 started with a historic flood in Montana, brought on by heavy rain and melting snow, that tore up roads and caused large areas of Yellowstone National Park to be evacuated.
Typhoon Merbok, fueled by unusually warm Pacific Ocean, pounded Alaska’s vulnerable coastal communities at a critical time
The powerful remnants of Typhoon Merbok pounded Alaska's western coast on Sept. 17, 2022, pushing homes off their foundations and tearing apart protective berms as water flooded communities.
Newsom signs climate bill package into law
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of new climate initiatives into law Friday, touting them as aggressive moves to address pollution and accelerate a clean energy transition in the Golden State.
Intense heat waves and flooding are battering electricity and water systems, as America’s aging infrastructure sags under the pressure of climate change
The 1960s and 1970s were a golden age of infrastructure development in the U.S., with the expansion of the interstate system and widespread construction of new water treatment, wastewater and flood control systems reflecting national priorities in public health and national defense. But infrastructure requires maintenance, and, eventually, it has to be replaced.
Extreme heat + air pollution can be deadly, with the health risk together worse than either alone
In the U.S. West, several states were under heat advisories as September began, facing what the National Weather Service described as a "prolonged and possibly record heat wave" - including in areas contending with wildfire smoke.
‘Matter of national destiny’: China’s energy crisis sees the world’s top emitter investing in more coal
Two months of scorching heatwaves and drought plunged China into an energy security crisis.
