Planet3.0 Blogs

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The south’s gonna fall again. The deep south. The rural deep south. I’ve mentioned that when the caseload rate for COVID-19 (the number of new cases per day per million population) gets above 100, I call it the “critical zone.”…

First day of Hurricane season, and scientists are asking new questions about hurricane behavior.…

Over the history of the Lego company, more than 600 billion plastic bricks have been produced, which means about a hundred bricks for every living person on Earth. Impressive, but it amounts to only 1.5 Gt of carbon in total (2.5…

June 1 marks the traditional opening of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. I spoke to one of the world’s best known hurricane experts, Kerry Emanuel of MIT, back in February. Penn State University Earth Systems Science Center: ESSC scientists Dr. Michael E.…

I haven’t really come across anything to write about recently. I’ve been thinking a bit about models and how they are used to inform decision making. I’ve been thinking a bit about the use of scientific advice. I also had…

Holds up pretty well. Lyrics: You can shine your shoes and wear a suitYou can comb your hair and look quite cuteYou can hide your face behind a smileOne thing you can’t hideIs when you’re crippled inside You can wear…

Sara Bloom Raskin in the New York Times: The Fed is singularly poised to seed strategic investments in future economic stability. Oil, gas and coal companies are set or are seeking to receive billions in federal aid — including at…

Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, has been steadfast in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. Even though some of her efforts have been thwarted by political opponents, she has triumphed in making social distancing and lockdown actually work. Michigan was hard-hit, early.…

Planet of the Humans, is of course, Michael Moore’s dumpster fire of a movie that’s been taken to the bosom of the fossil fueled, climate denial, and white supremacist internet. A few weeks ago I posted the message from Joanne…

The owners of a shoe repair shop in Florence (*). In this picture, taken just after the end of the coronavirus lockdown, they are preparing to reopen their shop. They look happy, even euphoric. Time will tell if that optimism…

More here from my interview with Andrea Dutton in December, at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Scientists keep telling me about the emotional challenges of breaking bad news about climate change. It’s a tightrope.There’s hope we can steer away…

Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post: In a reflexive impulse to defy all experts and to glorify know-nothingism, President Trump and his cult followers made mask-wearing verboten for many who identify themselves as “conservative.” Like the Gadsden flag for the…

To be honest, and Eli is always honest, good intentions slip away when one is sleeping through a lockdown, one day like another, and another and another and one simply stays in bed and does not visit Rabett Run muchlyHowever…

I’ve met and interviewed Jason Samenow of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang several times, most recently at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December. When the dam failures near me hit the wires last week, he bumped me…

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Darwin Glacier in Landsat images from 1986 and 2020. Red arrow indicates 1986 terminus location, yellow arrow 2020 terminus location, purple dots the snowline.  Point 1,2 and 3 indicate the same specific location. Darwin Glacier flows east from the main…

Following Elon Musk’s recent public threat to leave California, he’s being courted by unlikely suitors in the Petro-Belt. Tulsa World: An icon from Tulsa’s pioneering past was used Wednesday to send an unmistakable message to Tesla founder Elon Musk that…

The 9/11 attacks of 2001 are classic examples of  "catalytic events" that change the course of history. They can be seen as triggers for "Seneca Collapses," sudden and catastrophic, they are well described by Seneca's words, "the way to ruin…

Per capita, many of the places hardest hit by COVID-19 aren’t urban, but rural (blue circles mark areas with at least 50 cases per day per million population, red circles those with at least 100): Note the swath of cases…

It's a weird world when wearing a mask to prevent a deadly disease is like letting your freak flag fly.…

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I was surprised, today, to find this graph on Google. What struck me was the evident periodicity in the number of deaths in the US. Most of the deaths take place on Thursdays and Fridays. On the contrary, the minima…

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Report from Detroit channel 4, WDIV…

Lyrics: There’s nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)Than a cool, crisp, clean gla** of waterOn a warm summer’s day (That cool refreshing drink)Try it with your friends New World Water make the tide rise highCome inland and make your…

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The figure above shows the effect of the two major outbursts of plague in Europe (you can find a detailed discussion of this subject in my book "Before the Collapse"). Here, Rorberto Mussi developes a historical perspective of past epidemics…

Nice explainer of what happened to the multiple dam system that failed this week in Michigan. Below, more on site footage from Mlive:…

I’m working on a piece, as it happens, examining the growing realization that the US real estate market is gravely at risk due to steadily increasing climate impacts.In areas exposed to coastal flooding and extreme rains, like Houston, a series…