After years of warning, sea ice coverage and other indicators are beginning to push outside the bounds of the former “normal” climate
While touring fire-ravaged California, Donald Trump downplayed the role a warming planet could have in the devastation, suggesting temperatures will "start getting cooler" and that the recent conflagrations was a lack of proper forest management.
"I don't think science knows actually," he said when told that science didn't agree with his conclusions
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Joe Biden went on the attack, accusing Trump of ignoring a "central crisis" facing the nation.
"If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?" he asked. "If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?"
If the nuclear one-tenth of global electricity generation displaced an average mix of fossil-fueled generation and nothing else, it would offset 4% of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions. So in an era of urgent climate concern, should nuclear power continue, shrink, or expand?
In May 2020, a report by the International Energy Agency claimed that not sustaining and even expanding nuclear power would make climate solutions “drastically harder and more costly.”
To check that claim, we must compare nuclear power with other potential climate solutions. Here I’ll use only two criteria—cost and speed—because if nuclear power has no business case or takes too long, we need not address its other merits or drawbacks.
At 121 degrees, Los Angeles County hit its highest temperature ever recorded this weekend, as the state swelters in a heat wave that has helped intensify the most devastating wildfire season California has experienced in years.
The record temperature was measured in Woodland Hills, northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The "kiln-like" heat was exacerbated by a high-pressure system and a weak sea breeze, according to the National Weather Service.
NWS Meteorologist Dave Bruno told The New York Times that these factors "allowed basically the entire region to roast." Several other locations in the state also faced scorching temperatures.