The world is absolutely crazy right now, and yes, it’s Trump’s fault: There’s a lot of very understandable free-floating stress (punctuated by moments of terror and glorious protests), but the response I’m seeing is often a reflexive turn toward rugged individualism—Quick! I need to learn how to grow my own food!—a pulling away from community rather than leaning into it…. Read More
I put solar on my roof three years ago, and since then, I’ve helped plenty of solar-curious friends figure out the options—there are plenty (and you don’t need a PhD in Environmental Engineering to figure them out). GET SOLAR TO SAVE THE PLANET People immediately want to know if solar will save them money, or how long it will take… Read More
Dammit. My kid had to evacuate from the Palisades fire at 2am last night. They’ve been on red flag watch all week at the edge of the fire and the drop in winds I guess backdrafted the fire toward their apartment. They’re safe in a hotel but my god I hate this. They say everyone will eventually have first-hand experience… Read More
Learning From Climate Disasters I try to learn something out of every climate disaster (sadly, there’s no end of supply of those), but this fire in LA is particularly rough because my kid is like 1/2 mile from the evacuation zone (they’re safe and now that the fire’s maybe being contained, I’m less freaked out). I grew up in CA… Read More
I’m a huge advocate for solar and will make a separate post for that (SOLAR: How to Get Started and Why You Should), but whether you have solar or not, having backup power is going to be more important going forward (especially with a climate denier in the White House not only eager to make the climate crisis worse, he’s… Read More
Pittsburgh, Summer 2023 These are the worst fires in Canadian history… and the smoke will be here (in the US, intermittently, depending on which way the wind blows) all summer. I didn’t expect the PhD in aerosol science to come in quite so handy for everyday life, but knowing a lot about tiny particles (aerosols) has been pretty useful the… Read More