Climate Change

Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere may become an important tool for slowing climate change. Climate models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require not only cutting emissions, but also removing hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

The market for batteries has exploded in recent years. Demand has grown more than fortyfold since 2010. The major reasons for the growth are electric cars and energy storage for solar and wind. Sales of EVs hit 20 million last year and storage capacity for solar farms has grown twentyfold in just the past 5 years.

The city of Manchester in Connecticut, located in Hartford County, will soon open a brand-new public library, replacing one that has served residents for nearly 90 years. The new library will be the first net zero energy library in the state.

The heatwaves that keep happening this summer are a major strain on power grids. In some places, electric school buses are helping utilities to keep the lights on and air conditioners running.

Hawaii faces a growing plastic waste problem. Recycling is expensive and difficult on the islands, and discarded fishing nets (the largest source of Hawaii’s marine debris) continue to wash ashore and drift in surrounding waters. Researchers are now exploring an innovative way to tackle both challenges at the same time by turning discarded plastics into roads.

As of mid-July, there have been three major heatwaves in western Europe this summer. An early intense heatwave in May was followed by an exceptionally severe heatwave in late June that broke all-time records across the region. A third heatwave in July swept through France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and elsewhere.

The Trump administration has been battling to stop wind power projects in the United States citing various dubious reasons such as national security, danger to birds and whales, and even cancer risks. The President has had a personal vendetta against wind energy for more than a decade since he was unable to stop a wind turbine project near his golf course in Scotland. The executive orders to halt wind-energy leases and permits last year were ultimately overturned by the courts, allowing projects such as five offshore wind projects in the Northeast to continue.

The Schoharie Central School District, located in the heart of New York’s Mohawk Valley, recently transformed a former hayfield into a one-acre solar installation. The system is rated at 749 kilowatts of power. The project was funded by $2.4 million in voter-approved capital as well as state aid.

U.S. electric power consumption hit is second straight annual record high in 2025 and will rise further in 2026 and 2027. Electric grid consumption had been relatively stable between 2010 and 2021 and per capita consumption even declined over that period, but all that has changed.

The Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, created programs that lowered the levels of six common pollutants: particulate matter, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. As a result, the combined emissions of these six dropped by 78% over the ensuing 50 years even while the U.S. economy continued to grow. In particular, the reduction of smog and fine particulate matter improved public health nationwide.