We are now officially in hurricane season. It started June 1 and will continue until November 30. In my post on sea surface temperatures, I discussed how abnormally warm the Atlantic Ocean is. Sea surface temperatures are also exceptionally warm throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Today there is a huge swath of the Gulf just west of southern Florida where the water is so hot it is literally evaporating millions of gallons of water per hour.

In February of 2024 sea surface temperatures were the highest since we started keeping accurate records. And in March of 2024, sea surface temperatures were even slightly higher. According to Carlos Nobre, one of the world’s most notable climatologists, no known computer model predicted this was going to happen.

The word extrapolate is defined as being able to predict a trend by projecting recent past experience or data forward into the future. Therefore if we extrapolate recent climate data, it appears the future looks extremely bleak in terms of climate change, especially when it comes to heat waves.

During the 1940s through the 1970s, Shell Oil sponsored a contest called The Wood River Competition. The winner was the car that achieved the best mileage. In 1973, the winner was a 1959 Opel T-1 and it achieved 376.59 miles per gallon.

On November 14, 2023 the government released The Fifth National Climate Assessment, a summary of the state of affairs regarding climate change and how it may affect the United States.

In the late summer of 2016, Caspian terns were discovered in Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alaska, 1000 miles farther north than ever previously recorded. These majestic birds have never been seen this close to the North Pole. Do these birds sense something bad about to happen, and are they attempting to escape it?

“Geothermal leases under this Act shall not be issued for lands administered in accordance with (1) the Act of August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535), as amended or supplemented, (2) for lands within a national recreation area, (3) for lands in a fish hatchery administered by the Secretary, wildlife refuge, wildlife range, game range, wildlife management area, waterfowl production area, or for lands acquired or reserved for the protection and conservation of fish and wildlife that are threatened with extinction, (4) for tribally or individually owned Indian trust or restricted lands, within or without the boundaries  of Indian reservations.” (The Act of August 25, 1916 was the act to establish the National Park Service.)

Most U.S. and world electricity generation is from electric power plants that use a turbine to drive electricity generators. In a turbine generator, a moving fluid—water, steam, combustion gases, or air—pushes a series of blades mounted on a rotor shaft. The force of the fluid on the blades spins (rotates) the rotor shaft of a generator. The generator, in turn, converts the mechanical (kinetic) energy of the rotor to electrical energy. Different types of turbines include steam turbines, combustion (gas) turbines, hydroelectric turbines, and wind turbines.