A long-established physical reality is that for every 1-degree Celsius increase in temperature, air can hold 7% more moisture before becoming saturated. The Washington Post examines this phenomenon, noting that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has increased by 12% in the last 85 years. This is an enormous amount of water, and it is resulting in severe rainfall events all around the world — particularly where strong winds bring moisture evaporated from the ocean onto the land. ‟A growing body of research suggests those air currents are also changing in response to rising temperatures, but scientists are still studying exactly how those shifts will unfold.”

Some of the most damaging storms in the recent past, including Hurricane Helene, Super Typhoon Yagi or the intense flooding in Valencia, Spain, were a product of massive amounts of atmospheric moisture. South Korea has been one of the hardest-hit nations: ‟In the summer of 2020, the country was battered by 15 consecutive heavy rainfall events, generating more precipitation than the nation had ever seen in a single monsoon season. Just two years later, record rains in Seoul led to flash floods that overwhelmed the sewer system and caused people to drown in basement apartments. The following July at least 40 people were killed when more than 20 inches of rain fell on the country in a single day.”

The Atlantic notes that ‟weather patterns in South Florida have changed, and extreme rainfall has become more frequent, exacerbating the rising sea level. Last year, a “rain bomb” system dumped more than a foot of water on Miami in just two days. Until very recently, that was considered a once-in-200-years (or rarer) event — but it has now happened in the city four times in as many years.”

The Washington Post concludes that ‟engineers must design bridges and culverts to handle storms beyond anything in the historical record. Planners must institute policies to keep people out of the most dangerous parts of flood plains. Meteorologists, emergency managers and local officials must develop better ways to warn residents and help them move to safety. And ordinary people must come to terms with a difficult truth: The floods of their future will not be like those of their past.”

The BBC reports that ‟sales of fully electric or hybrid vehicles made up more than half of all new car registrations in the UK in September,” and zero-emission vehicles accounted for more than one in five new cars registered so far in 2025. Unlike the U.S., the UK offers a purchase credit for electric vehicles. But even without the tax credit in the U.S., an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle notes that EVs are here to stay. About one in four new cars sold in California are now EVs. They are great cars that are getting cheaper, and with only 200 moving parts, compared to 2,000 for internal-combustion vehicles, EVs have lower repair costs. The article notes that ‟according to a recent JD Power Survey, 94% of drivers don’t plan to go back to gasoline cars.” After owning a Hyundai Ionic 6 for almost a year, I can assure you that I’m in that group.

The Washington Post describes a pilot program in which people’s EVs are being used to power their homes during blackouts as well as providing back-up power to the grid. EV batteries are very large, and store more energy ‟than all the stationary batteries built to back up homes, businesses and utilities, combined.” (A Ford F-150 Lightning can store about as much energy as 10 Tesla Powerwall home batteries, enough to power the average U.S. household for four-and-a-half days.) My EV is not on the grid, but the charging port can be configured into a household plug from which I could power key appliances in an emergency.

The Washington Post explains how Uruguay ‟went from relying heavily on fossil fuels for electricity production to establishing a stable grid powered almost entirely by renewable sources, including water, wind, solar and biomass waste.” This was the vision of Ramón Méndez Galain who, as Energy Secretary, developed an integrated, nationwide plan to move the country to renewable energy. The article describes the many challenges he faced, and how they were overcome. Last year, 99.1% of Uruguay’s electricity was from renewable sources.

The Trump Administration’s effort to force the U.S. in the other direction is unfortunately having its desired effect, at least for offshore wind. Yale e360 describes how the future of the industry on the U.S. Atlantic coast, previously a projected source of electricity for 2.5 million homes (about two-thirds of New Jersey residences) by 2030, is now being spoken of in eulogistic terms. Investment in U.S. offshore-wind projects was predicted to reach $65 billion by 2030, but that forecast has been cut in half.

The election of Mikie Sherrill as Governor of New Jersey is a glimmer of hope for the industry. Canary Media notes that Sherrill has advocated for offshore wind since 2017, and ‟she was one of only three Democrats who explicitly endorsed offshore wind on campaign websites early in the race.” Her Republican opponent promised to ban future offshore-wind projects, and sold ‟​stop offshore wind” merchandise on his campaign website.

Grist reports on the recent election in Georgia, where two Democrats were elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission for the first time in years. Unlike the past, where Georgia Power held sway over the votes of the Commission, there will now be more focus on the link between electricity prices and the use of fossil fuels v. renewable power. ‟The results could have an impact on power bills, climate, and future elections, as many observers view it as a bellwether for next year’s elections for governor and U.S. Senate.” The current five Republican commissioners have approved six increases to users’ power bills in the last three years, and are now supporting meeting increasing electrical demand mainly with natural gas. Republicans will still hold a 3-2 majority when the new commissioners take office in January, but next year another Republican-held seat will come before the voters.

An op-ed in The New York Times points out that more efficient management of the grid could greatly reduce the need to raise electricity prices due to the construction of new infrastructure. The author notes that ‟if big new power users curbed demand just 0.25 percent of the time — about 22 hours a year — the United States could accommodate more data centers without burdening household electricity users. Another analysis found nearly the same thing: Cutting grid use during just 10 of the year’s busiest hours provided nearly the same benefit as building a new power plant.” The Washington Post notes that a renewed focus on the cost of electricity has resulted in much less political discussion of climate change. Voters seem less interested, and politicians are responding not just with fewer words, but also with fewer policies. According to the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, ‟countries added more than 300 climate and environmental policies in 2020 and 2021. In 2024, they added fewer than 50.” Of course, climate change is not going away, and the benefits of climate-aware policymaking will become more evident in the near future.

Grist takes a sad look at the continuing reverberations from Hurricane Ida, which struck Louisiana in 2021, due to the bankruptcy of insurance companies. The article examines the example of FedNat Insurance Company, which had become one of the biggest property insurers in Louisiana, only to be overwhelmed by losses when four hurricanes hit the South in the span of about two months in 2020, followed by a deadly winter storm in early 2021. The company declared bankruptcy before paying all claims due. These unpaid claims became the responsibility of the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association, a state-backed corporation that assumes outstanding claims from failed insurance companies licensed in Louisiana, but it has been unable to cope with the scale of the losses. In states around the country, the number of residential properties that have ended up on state-sponsored last-resort insurance plans is skyrocketing. In California, there’s been a 167% increase since 2021, while in Louisiana the number of policies tripled between 2021 and 2023.

The New York Times reports that the EPA appears to be retreating from its proposal to eliminate the Energy Star labeling program for appliances. The elimination of this program, which helps consumers understand the energy efficiency of different models, triggered intense pushback from business leaders and congressional Republicans. ‟Since its creation in 1992, Energy Star has helped households and businesses save more than $40 billion annually in energy bills,” while it has cost the EPA only $32 million to administer the program.

The New York Times notes that Kim Kardashian is claiming that the moon landing was faked (of course, independent evidence confirms it did happen). This would be silly except that Kardashian has over 364 million followers on Instagram, with an additional 75 million followers on Twitter/X. The New York Times has 11.8 million subscribers and 20 million followers on Instagram.

This reminds me of a sign I saw at The March for Science: ‟The world is comprised of protons, neutrons, electrons and morons.”

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