Sunday, August 27, 2023

The Glories of Wilderness

"It's a spiritual experience to hike through the cathedral of wilderness, whether alone or with a family member or friend; the mountains and rivers generate a quasi-religious awe and put us humans in our place. I understand Spinoza best not in the library but in the mountains."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/26/opinion/hiking-wilderness-urban-america.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Hungry Mosquitoes, Irritable Bears and the Glories of Wilderness

Sunday, August 13, 2023

The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think

Delivery vans in Pittsburgh. Buses in Milwaukee. Cranes loading freight at the Port of Los Angeles. Every municipal building in Houston. All are powered by electricity derived from the sun, wind or other sources of clean energy.

Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.

A similar energy transition is already well underway in Europe and elsewhere. But the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely.

Wind and solar power are breaking records, and renewables are now expected to overtake coal by 2025 as the world's largest source of electricity. Automakers have made electric vehicles central to their business strategies and are openly talking about an expiration date on the internal combustion engine. Heating, cooling, cooking and some manufacturing are going electric.

As the planet registers the highest temperatures on record, rising in some places to levels incompatible with human life, governments around the world are pouring trillions of dollars into clean energy to cut the carbon pollution that is broiling the planet...


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/12/climate/clean-energy-us-fossil-fuels.html