“God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the world that he created, for the benefit of all and for future generations, and if we have taken care of our brothers and sisters. What will be our answer?” Pope Leo has given his first speech on the climate. He also “noted that some have chosen to deride the increasingly evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming.”
Meanwhile, the US Energy Department sent an email instructing staff to avoid “terminology that you know to be misaligned with the Administration’s perspectives and priorities”, with a list of banned words that includes climate change, green, carbon and sustainability.
Britain has a target to run on 100% clean energy by 2030, and the grid continues to set new records on the way to that. So far clean energy supply has exceeded demand for 87 hours this year.
Hannah Ritchie points out some positive news that hasn’t made any headlines: record breaking harvests are expected in most parts of the world this year.
Some book news: my online bookshop, Earthbound Books, now has ebooks. I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Fill your eboots.
Latest articles
What we learned this week
With the arrival of smaller and cheaper options on the market, the average price paid for a new electric car is now cheaper than petrol cars in the UK, according to Autotrader. The total cost of ownership was already lower, and now the sticker price shouldn’t be a sticking point either. Beyond private cars and…
Orienting building for energy savings
I’ve been doing quite a lot of work around summer overheating recently, looking at how we adapt buildings for a warmer climate. For the day job that’s with schools, and I have a personal interest in it in homes as well. Our own house has a tendency to get too hot in the summer, and…
Trump’s accidental boost to the energy transition
One of the greatest spurs to environmental action was the series of oil shocks in the 1970s. As the Rapid Transition Alliance describe in a history of the era, it transformed the environmental movement from a focus on conservation to a focus on energy. Governments responded in all sorts of ways to the wake up…
The Earthbound Report 
Am looking at data for Virginia’s crops. We had, between 2023 and 2024, 40 and 47% declines for corn and winter wheat yields, respectively. 12% decrease for tobacco. Increases for soybean yields by 22% and cotton, too. Need references for the past 60 months in order to see a pattern.