Climate Lynx

A great man passed away in June in a state he may play a role in saving. The state is Texas, and Texas is suffering from a heat wave on climate change steroids. Texans are competitive people, especially in the oil business. In the last few weeks, Texans have been competing with places like Kuwait City, Baghdad, and Djibouti for a dubious record. Will Texas be the hottest place on earth? The Yellow Rose is wilting as heat records are falling. San Angelo and Del Rio have surpassed 110 F. Del Rio, already experiencing searing records ten days in a row, topped out at 115F. Rio Grande Village ran away with the roasting honors at 119F. We have seen blistering hot records set at a pace of two hot records for every cold record for years. This rate of hot records to cold will continue until we cease polluting the air with heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Luckily, we have the tools to turn this around. If we electrify our lives using solar, wind, and battery storage, we will not need to bur...

By UP Resident and Retired Senior NOAA Atmospheric Scientist, Kevin Krupi. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record since 1880 in terms of global average temperature and that the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 2010.  July 2021 is the warmest month on record since at least 1880.  The great majority (97%) of the most qualified scientists in the field of atmospheric science believe human-caused greenhouse gas emissions (mainly from burning fossil fuels) and other irresponsible actions like mass deforestation are responsible for this global warming/climate change (see  climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus ). Additionally, the World Meteorological Organization released a report in September 2022 stating that human-caused global warming/climate change has caused weather-related disasters to increase fivefold over the last 50 years.  In fact, according to the National Centers for Environmental Inf...

Sometimes I disagree with how words are used; some words mean too many things—for instance, the word, battery. In physics, the word means what most of us would recognize. It is a device that stores chemical energy, which can be converted to electrical power. This is where chemists are focusing their energy. The race for better batteries is on. Lithium-ion, Lithium-sulfur, Sodium-ion, and Iron-air are only a few of the many batteries being investigated and developed to store (or bank) power. The word battery has many additional meanings. In law, it means to beat someone; in the military, it is a grouping of artillery or naval guns. Suppose you have a group of similar items. In that case, you can correctly call it a battery, such as a “battery of tests,” a “battery of filing cabinets,” or even a “battery of chicken cages.” When the Finns developed a simple but ingenious device to store heat, they named it a Sand Battery. At least, this is what the media has labeled it. This has not s...