PBS Terra asks 'This Hurricane Should NEVER Have Happened… So How Did It?' Plus National Metric Day

I got off to a late start today and have hurricanes on my mind, so I'm sharing PBS Terra asking This Hurricane Should NEVER Have Happened… So How Did It?

For some reason, hurricanes are terrified of South America. In fact, as long as we’ve been keeping track, it’s only EVER been hit by ONE! Hurricane Catarina was the hurricane that, according to meteorology, never should have happened. So how did it? On this episode of Weathered, we take a tour of hurricane regions around the world to answer that question. And we find out what Catarina can teach us about how hurricanes really work, and how they’re changing.

Catarina features in An Inconvenient Truth as a possible example of climate change affecting hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and tropical storms: "Explain how the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons fit with predictions based on global warming." That no hurricane has formed in the South Atlantic since shows that it was most likely a fluke and may have nothing to do with climate change. That doesn't detract from what Maiya May and other meteorologist learned from it nor from the other predictions, that hurricanes will get stronger and rising sea levels will increase the amount of storm surge, making coastal flooding worse. That's the answer to a question I ask in Chasing Ice, which replaced An Inconvenient Truth: "What effect will rising sea level have on hurricanes and typhoons?" California is seeing that right now as a result of El Niño amplifying the waves of Tropical Storm Rachel, something I'll mention to my students next week.

Speaking of my students, I also teach them the metric system, which reminds me that today is NATIONAL METRIC DAY | October 10th - National Day Calendar.

October 10th is National Metric Day!
Marlo Anderson tells us some history and benefits of the metric system.

I'm recycling what I wrote in Discovery News and I rant in favor of the metric system for my reaction.

In my Environmental Science class, the lab I run is one to introduce my students to the metric system, which many of my students struggle with. In fact, their issues with it are such that I tell my students a joke about it. "There are only three groups of students in community college who understand the metric system, the science nerds, the foreign students, and the drug dealers." That never fails to get a laugh.

My job would be a lot easier and I could cover something else if the United States fully adopted the metric system.

My joke has changed a little over the past 13 years, as some gamers also understand the metric system thanks to their games using it, but my opinion hasn't.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the winners of Outstanding Reality Competition Program and related categories as the Sunday entertainment feature on National Coming Out Day followed by Indigenous Peoples' Day.

PBS NewsHour reports 'Trump administration ends funding for Arctic climate report' for Throwback Thursday

I opened More scientists and others fighting climate change and its effects from 'PBS NewsHour' with "I closed PBS NewsHour's Tipping Points examines scientists fighting climate change and its effects by writing 'PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers.'" Here's another PBS NewsHour video on the topic of climate change that I've been saving up for a rainy day, Trump administration ends funding for Arctic climate report.

The Trump administration said it would stop funding the Arctic Report Card, the longstanding effort to collect research on how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing. It's the latest in a series of moves by the administration to curtail scientific research into the impacts of climate change. William Brangham discussed more with glaciologist Twila Moon, the Arctic Report Card's editor.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I posted The BBC World Service examines 'How the US election could change our climate' plus MSNBC on Project 2025 and climate almost two years ago and followed up with CityNerd warns 'The New USDOT Is Coming for Your "Woke" Projects,' a driving update on Throwback Thursday and Trump implementing Project 2025 for a Flashback Good Friday last year. None of this was a surprise and it's not like I and others didn't try to warn our readers!

That's a wrap. Stay tuned for more Emmy Award winners tomorrow and Sunday with Talk Like A Pirate Day in between.

More scientists and others fighting climate change and its effects from 'PBS NewsHour'

I closed 'PBS NewsHour's Tipping Points examines scientists fighting climate change and its effects by writing "PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers." Here are those clips, beginning with Carbon credit program pays small landowners to keep forests standing.

Markets to offset carbon emissions are now worth about $2 billion annually, and supporters say they're a key tool to address climate change. But carbon credits have also been criticized for being opaque and not reducing emissions nearly enough. Stephanie Sy reports on an effort to boost the integrity of carbon markets and open them up to small landowners. It’s part of our series, Tipping Point.

Carbon offset markets that actually are effective and include a major carbon reservoir — good news!

On the other hand, Farmers struggle with crops as climate change makes weather less predictable is definitely not good news.

More than half of the continental U.S. is facing drought conditions. But other parts of the country are facing the opposite problem. Extreme weather conditions can have major impacts on farmers and their crops at a time when they're already facing high production costs. Paul Solman recently traveled to southern Georgia to hear from some of those farmers. It's for our series, Tipping Point.

And the "Godzilla" El Niño is likely to make the situation even worse, if it isn't already.

That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry. Stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.

BBC and DW News on the 'Godzilla El Niño'

For today's "short evergreen educational entry," I'm revisiting PBS Terra and Vox explain the forecast 'super El Niño'. I begin with two videos from BBC News, starting with 'Strongest El Niño of the century' is coming. Should we be scared?

El Niño is a natural weather pattern that begins in the Pacific Ocean.

The event developing in 2026 could be the strongest in living memory, according to the Met Office.

But what does it mean, and what will it affect?

The answer to "should we be scared" is yes, at least a little. Calling it a "Godzilla" El Niño will just reinforce that feeling.

The above segment built upon El Niño set to be 'strongest in living memory', says Met Office.

The El Niño event that is developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.

The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.

Added to the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" to mean 2027 is the hottest year on record globally.

There is growing evidence that weather patterns around the world.

Hearing about all the effects El Niño is having on food supply and food prices reminds me of two of Commoner's Laws, "There is no free lunch" and "Everything is connected to everything else." I'll try to remember this when I teach Environmental Science one last time beginning next month.

Speaking of stories I tell my students, looking at the graph showing the effects of El Niño and La Niña on global temperature also reminds me of a question I ask in the worksheet for Chasing Ice, "How is increasing greenhouse gases like using performance-enhancing steroids?" They make extreme events more frequent and stronger. While climate change doesn't make El Niño more frequent, it is making the natural disasters it causes more frequent. Also, climate change is making El Niño at least appear stronger and El Niño is definitely increasing temperatures.

DW News features more expert commentary in A historic El Nino is forming. Here's why scientists are worried.

The UK's Met Office says this year's El Nino could unleash extreme weather, the likes of which the world has not seen in a century. The results could be record-breaking global temperatures in 2027 and a raft of natural disasters. DW's Sarah Kelly talks about the weather phenomenon with Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK and President of the European Meteorological Society.

The graph shows that the Pacific sea surface temperatures are already 2^oC above normal and could reach between 3 and 4^oC higher than average by the end of the year. Will that be stronger than 1877? Maybe.

All of the above examined the weather globally with a focus on Europe. What about the United States? PBS Terra covers some of that in What El Niño Predicts for Snowfall This Winter.

With El Niño officially here, and predicted to get stronger, let's see how it's going to affect our snow forecast for this winter! Weathered host Maiya May breaks it down.

The pattern predicts less snow here in Michigan and more snow in the mountains of California and the arid Southwest. That's good news for both places, so not everything about El Niño is bad.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for another brief evergreen educational entry tomorrow.

'PBS NewsHour's Tipping Points examines scientists fighting climate change and its effects

I closed The History (and present) of World Mosquito Day with my choice for today.

PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climate change. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.

PBS NewsHour has a whole series of videos on that theme, so I'm sharing the three most recent. I begin with Scientists explore large-scale geoengineering to slow glacier melt.

At a time when the impact of climate change is undeniable, some researchers suggest we need to start work on far more ambitious approaches for tackling these problems. These proposals are often referred to as geoengineering. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at one such concept to deal with the melting of glaciers and sea ice. It's for our series, Tipping Point.

Both Greenland and Antarctica should be familiar to my readers. I blog a lot about the planet's largest island that isn't also a continent, most recently in Howtown asks 'Why is this one spot not warming?' for World Environment Day on Flashback Friday, while I've written about Thwaites Glacier once before in 'Climate gentrification' is one of the answers as PBS Terra asks 'The Doomsday Glacier Is Collapsing…Who Is Most at Risk?' It was time I featured it again.

As for building an underwater barrier to keep out the warm water to slow the melting of Thwaites Glacier to melt it from below, that also strikes me as overly ambitious and impractical, although I think it would have less potential for unintended side effects than other geoengineering projects. I've been worried about those since Greenfinger, which I wrote on January 2, 2013. Coincidentally, that's World Science Fiction Day. Sometimes, I stumble over a holiday long before I know about it!

The next most recent is How satellites and AI cameras are detecting wildfires before they get out of control.

This year is becoming one of the worst for U.S. wildfires in at least a decade. There have been more fires and more acreage burned at this point in the year compared to any in the last ten. With fire seasons growing longer, early detection is critical. Special correspondent Ben Tracy of Climate Central reports on how AI is being used to spot fires faster. It's part of our series, Tipping Point.

Oh, good, a story about how technology in general and AI in particular are helping fight fires and other weather-related disasters! Not everything about AI is bad!

I close with How climate change and rising seas endanger historic sites like Jamestown, Virginia.

As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, rising seas and coastal erosion are putting some of America’s most historic places at risk. For our ongoing series, Tipping Point, special correspondent Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports from Jamestown, Virginia, where archaeologists are racing to uncover America’s past before it’s washed away.

I've mentioned several times that "I worked as a Park Naturalist (the type of Ranger most visitors see) at Channel Islands National Park during the summer of 1986," now 40 years ago, so this story hits close to home. Here's to preserving or at least salvaging as much of our country's natural and historic heritage as we can before it sinks beneath the waves.

PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers. It's final exam time, so stay tuned for more relatively brief entries until next Wednesday.

The History (and present) of World Mosquito Day

Happy World Mosquito Day! I begin today's observance with the City of Chesapeake telling The History of World Mosquito Day.

Mosquitoes impact public health on a global scale and are considered the deadliest creatures on earth due to their spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, dengue, Zika, and malaria.

I haven't recounted the significance of the day since How Disney World controls mosquitoes for World Mosquito Day in 2021, so it was time to remind my readers of it.

That was the history of the day. For the present, I turn to PBS NewsHour explaining how Scientists explore new ways to target mosquitoes as warming climate expands threat.

It doesn't have sharp teeth or claws, but the mosquito kills more people than any other animal on Earth. As the climate warms, mosquito season is lasting longer, giving them more time to spread dangerous diseases. Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports on why the insects are thriving, and the surprising way scientists are fighting back.

I'm recycling what I wrote last year for my reaction.

"Using one parasite that doesn't affect humans to reduce the ability of an insect to spread a parasite harmful to humans — clever! It's also not forever in the same way genetic modification is. Fine by me"...I think infecting them with Wolbachia is an example of a third law, "Nature knows best."

The technology has advanced so that it runs by mail order. Progress (and convenient, too).

That's a wrap for today's biodiversity holiday. PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climate change. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.

Be Smart describes 'The New Kind of Heat Humans Can’t Handle'

I promised a climate post today, so I'm sharing Be Smart describing The New Kind of Heat Humans Can’t Handle.

It's getting hot in here… can we survive it?
...
I pushed my body to the edge in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us. Why humidity, not just temperature, can make heat deadly, and how climate change and city design are making dangerous heat more common.

The climate part of the video harkens back to PBS Terra explains why 'America’s Disaster-Free Zone Has a Dark Secret'.

I guessed...that the dark secret was the heat...[My] guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023 twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy."

This part is something I can show to my environmental science students. The other part is the physiology of disposing of excess heat. That would be useful to Human Structure and Function students. Unfortunately, I don't plan on teaching that class ever again. So much for blogging as professional development, just personal development. Just the same, I hope my readers find it as interesting as I did.

That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry I can share in August. Stay tuned for another post I can share next month tomorrow.

PBS Terra explains why 'America’s Disaster-Free Zone Has a Dark Secret'

Today's "evergreen educational entry I can share in July" features Weathered on PBS Terra explaining why America’s Disaster-Free Zone Has a Dark Secret.

When you look at Federally declared disasters across the U.S., there’s a surprising blank spot in the Southwest region. What’s up with that? Is the Southwest really a safe haven from natural disasters? Or is there a more sinister explanation for this giant hole in the map? On this episode of Weathered, we talk to the folks who made this map, and some of the world’s leading experts on climate risk to find out what’s really going on.

My wife and I watched this video together on the big-screen TV in our bedroom. I guessed the lack of natural disasters in the American Southwest was because there aren't a lot of people there and that the dark secret was the heat. The first guess wasn't true; the Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ MSA has an estimated population of 5,228,938 while the Las Vegas–Henderson–North Las Vegas, NV MSA has an estimated population of 2,407,226.

The second guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023 twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy." Speaking of policy, Florida banning municipalities from protecting workers from heat shows that DeSantis wasn't only bad on COVID-19. He and the rest of the Republicans on Florida are bad on climate and weather, too.

While the lack of natural disasters in the American Southwest exists because of a flaw in the criteria for disaster declarations, the lack of natural disasters in and around Michigan is real. As I wrote in 2022, "Michigan is currently the safest state in the Union for natural disasters..." This gives me another opportunity to tout the Great Lakes State as a climate haven.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for a string of holidays, Juneteenth, American Eagle Day, National Seashell Day, the Summer Solstice, World Giraffe Day 2025, Father's Day, World Rainforest Day, and Detroit-style Pizza Day. I love holidays!

Howtown asks 'Why is this one spot not warming?' for World Environment Day on Flashback Friday

Happy World Environment Day on Flashback Friday! I've changed my plans; instead of more environmental winners at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, I'm featuring Howtown asking Why is this one spot not warming?

While most of the planet warms, a patch of ocean south of Greenland—often called the “cold blob” or “North Atlantic warming hole”—is not warming. In fact, depending on which years you look at, it has actually cooled since industrialization. In this video we investigate this odd phenomenon which has implications for the future of our climate and the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC is a system of currents that transports heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic, regulating weather patterns across Northwestern Europe and beyond. However, recent evidence suggests this vital system may be weakening. Could human-induced climate change, specifically the warming of the ocean and the influx of freshwater from melting ice, be pushing this circulation toward a tipping point? We take a journey through centuries of oceanographic discovery to understand the overturning circulation, the urgency of research on the AMOC, and what the potential collapse of this system could mean for the stable world we built our civilizations on.

Yes, this exercise in explaining how we know what we know is about the AMOC, which I covered most recently in USA Today warns 'The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse'. Howtown's video now makes two entries where an outlet other than PBS Terra covered the AMOC. The potential catastrophe is once again penetrating beyond the outlet that specializes in Climate change and other natural disasters. I suppose that's good news. It also includes Camp Century, the subject of The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice. If I had heard of Camp Century before that documentary, it hadn't stuck, at least under that name. Now I've blogged about it twice in a week!

I haven't changed my plan for the second half of today's post, a retrospective of top shares about holidays on Bluesky and Twitter/X during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Follow over the jump.

'The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice' wins Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday

I wrote the following in 'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards after watching the trailer for The Memory of Darkness Light and Ice.

Watching this trailer reminds me that I showed Chasing Ice to my students last week and this is week is Earth Week, making this a good movie to recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It also makes me think that it's the strongest competitor to Sally. Last year, I thought that the "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA on PBS had the strongest science of all the nominees, but didn't have the best chance of winning. Surprise, it won! That could happen here.

It did. From Kathy Kasic's Instagram.

I’m so happy to report that The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice was awarded the a National Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology documentary!! Our science and film team is beyond ecstatic!! It was a tremendous honor to be amongst so many great documentary filmmakers last night. This award elevates not just the film, but also the voices of the scientists and the documentary’s funder, the National Science Foundation.

As a scientist and filmmaker, my work aims to unify scientific research and share it with the public. This is especially important when the science we urgently need to hear is being attacked. So thank you to the @emmysnatas for this timely and beautiful award!!

Congratulations! To celebrate, I'm linking The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, free to watch on Youtube with ads.

A long-lost sediment core unveils an ancient time when Greenland was greener -- giving vital clues to our future.

Sorry, embedding not allowed.

Since today is Wayback Wednesday, follow over the jump for the relevant top post from last year.

PBS Terra shows 'We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See'

Today's brief educational entry I can share in June features Overview on PBS Terra showing We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See.

We investigated one of the world’s largest AI data centers, using thermal drone footage to reveal the hidden pollution powering the AI boom. As companies race to build the future of artificial intelligence, residents and experts warn that fossil fuels, secrecy, and weak regulation may be putting communities at risk.

I reproduced my usual warning about AI in TODAY reveals TIME's people of the year for 2025.

I'm repeating what I wrote about the Economics Nobel Prize in Science, peace, economics, and literature winners for Nobel Prize Day 2025.

This award is as much about technology as it is about economics. May it mean that AI be a net benefit for the economy. Right now, it looks like it's doing more destruction than creation.

If the projections are correct, it will be doing both, with 20% of people losing their current jobs while quintupling GDP. Yikes! That's an outcome the residents of Richistan would approve of. As for the rest of us, I'll repeat what I wrote a dozen years ago in Robots are coming for our jobs, "the loss of jobs to robots will be the major effect of the Singularity, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity." It's not like we weren't warned.

That would be an end result. Joe Hanson is showing that getting there is already a risk in terms of increased consumption of land, water, materials to make the data centers and the power plants to run them, and natural gas, as well as increased production of waste in the form of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. It reminds me of an equation I teach my environmental science students to describe environmental impact: "I=P*A*T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is technology." A.I., or at least the data centers to support it, are becoming an example of a technology that supports affluence but increases the impact of the population on the environment. I prefer technology that decreases the impact of an affluent population by being more efficient. Data centers aren't that, not until they use sustainable energy.

Overview's video is a follow-up to Floodlight News reporting We Caught Elon Musk’s AI Company Defying Federal Law two months ago.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, is fueling its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage captured in late January 2026 shows xAI running the unpermitted turbines at its custom-built power plant in Southaven, Miss., nearly two weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency reiterated that doing so requires a state permit in advance. The ad hoc gas plant's sole task is to power the data center behind Grok and an example of AI's growing reliance on fossil fuels. Investigative Producer Evan Simon breaks down the investigation and what the findings could mean for the AI buildout occurring across the country.

**UPDATE** Mississippi regulators approved xAI's permit application to run 41 gas powered turbines at its Southaven gas plant on 3/10/26. The decision comes despite heavy pushback from local community members and will result in the creation of one of Mississippi's largest fossil fuel power plants.

This got me to subscribe to the Floodlight News YouTube channel, "The only U.S. newsroom with the specific mission to investigate climate polluters." Expect to see more from them.

Another lesson I teach my students is about the principles for environmental policy. Two of them are human rights, in this case the right to clean air and an environment not permeated by harmful noise, and public participation. The United States is supposed to be a democracy within a republic, where the people decide and the government represents the people. The Floodlight News video shows that the way data centers are being installed and operated respects neither. That's also the point of yesterday's MS NOW video, Erin Brockovich on AI data centers: 'People aren't being heard'.

Americans on both sides of the aisle have found common ground opposing construction of AI data centers in their communities. In Texas, one lifelong conservative voter told MSNOW reporter Josh Einiger that the issue could flip the Senate. And longtime consumer advocate Erin Brockovich joins to lay out what she's learned since she started tracking the issue.

I'm surprised I've never mentioned Erin Brockovich in 15+ years of blogging. It's about time I did.

That's a wrap for today. I'm sure I'll have more to say on the matter. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.

USA Today warns 'The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse'

Today's short educational entry consists of USA Today warning The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse.

A large-scale and delicate system of ocean currents that has been active for millions of years and that’s responsible for our warm climate is in danger of collapse due to climate change. This is according to a new study published in April in the journal Science Advances. Shane Elipot, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami and one of the authors of the study, joins The Excerpt to share his findings.

Very little of this should be news to my readers. I've been warning about the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) collapsing since 2022 and asking about the effects of the Greenland ice sheet melting on ocean circulation and global climate since 2013. What is news is USA Today producing a video about it. The sixth largest newspaper in the U.S. by subscribers is paying attention to climate change!

It turns out that's not as new as I first thought. It's that the YouTube algorithm finally began presenting me with USA Today's videos on the topic. Actually looking for the climate change on USA Today's channel retrieved Climate change: How US cities are already feeling the effects | JUST THE FAQS from 2022.

Wildfires, hurricanes and floods: Climate change already hitting US, according to new UN study... A new United Nations study shows climate change is no longer a hypothetical of the future. Here's how it's already affecting regions across the country and what you can do to prepare.

I'm lecturing on climate change today, and I might just replace one of my videos with this one. If so, welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today's entry. I have some music planned for Tuneful Tuesday, so stay tuned to see if I follow through.

PBS Terra warns 'A Hidden Antarctic Tipping Point May Have Just Been Triggered' for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! Today's retrospective covers the most read entries about climate change and extreme weather, particularly those featuring videos from Weathered on PBS Terra. I begin with the show and channel's latest on these topics, a warning that A Hidden Antarctic Tipping Point May Have Just Been Triggered.

Something unexpected and potentially irreversible is changing Antarctica and scientists finally know why.

Over the past few decades, researchers have tracked the mysterious growth and sharp decline in sea ice in Antarctica. But a few years ago a troubling discovery was made that could upend global ocean circulation, push one species of penguin to extinction, and change our planet’s climate forever.

In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May looks into the role sea ice plays in our global climate, and the threat that its disappearance poses to our natural world.

From emperor penguins, to sea level rise, to the slowing of the AMOC, these seemingly inconsequential chunks of floating ice could hold the key to our survival. And their loss could be a sign that we’ve crossed a tipping point in an already delicate region of our planet.

Climate scientists and oceanographers have been so concerned about the AMOC weakening and collapsing because of the Greenland ice sheet melting that we've ignored the threat to the Global Conveyor Belt current from melting in Antarctica. We can't do that anymore, not once the Antarctic sea ice began to shrink the same way that Arctic sea ice had been for decades. At least Antarctic sea ice growing will no longer be a viable climate change denial talking point. Small favors.

Follow over the jump for the most read and active posts about climate change and extreme weather during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

PBS Terra asks 'Is This the ABSOLUTE Worst Case Tipping Point?'

I had other plans for today's post, but then my wife and I watched Weathered on PBS Terra asking Is This the ABSOLUTE Worst Case Tipping Point?*

What happens when a planet crosses a climate tipping point it can’t recover from? Venus may hold the answer.

Scientists think Venus once had oceans, water, and a climate that may have resembled early Earth. But something pushed the planet past a threshold. Water evaporated, greenhouse warming spiraled, and Venus became the hottest planet in our solar system.

So what was that tipping point? And could anything like it happen on Earth?

In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May explores the science behind runaway greenhouse effects, ancient volcanic carbon releases, and one of the most surprising climate wildcards scientists have discovered: the potential collapse of stratocumulus clouds.

From crocodiles in the Arctic during past hothouse climates to cutting-edge models of cloud loss under extreme CO2 levels, this episode investigates what keeps Earth’s climate stable and what could push it toward irreversible change.

Earth isn’t turning into Venus anytime soon. But Venus reveals something more important: what happens when a planet loses its brakes.

My wife and I found this fascinating because we're both scientists who are concerned about climate change and interested in space. While my wife is a psychologist who uses the experimental method, I'm a paleontologist who uses the comparative method and modeling. That was enough to get me to blog about this video today, since it ticked off so many of my boxes.

One of those boxes is that it referred back to PBS Terra warns 'There's Something MUCH Bigger Than Yellowstone. And It Will Happen Again.' I enjoyed it except the way Maiya May presented it seemed to imply that the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was associated with the eruption of the Columbia River Basalts. That happened during the Miocene, not the terminal Paleocene and earliest Eocene. The original video made it clear that the PETM is contemporaneous with the North Atlantic Igneous Province, just in case my readers were as confused as I was.

That was something I learned back in November. The new fact I learned today was about how stratocumulus clouds, which form at the top of the marine layer, work and what the model predicts would happen when carbon dioxide levels go about 1200 ppm. That makes today a good day, as any day I learn something new is a good day.

This wraps up today's evergreen educational entry. Stay tuned for an entertainment entry I will share next month. Randy Rainbow just uploaded a new song!

*I was planning on writing this week's version of Lydic, Meyers, Kimmel, and Colbert take closer looks at the 'Melania' documentary and other news, but the comedians didn't have a common theme to their monologues and my wife found a shinier object. Besides, Saturday Night Live will cover the week's news tomorrow night, so I'm not worried about missing anything.

PBS Terra lists '5 Warning Signs of Collapse We're Ignoring' plus presidential pets for Presidents Day

I promised the sequel to PBS Terra explains 'This Is How the World Ends According to Science', so I'm sharing 5 Warning Signs of Collapse We're Ignoring.

Is this how civilizations end? As climate disasters intensify, some cities survive — and others collapse. So what makes the difference?

In this episode of Weathered, host Maiya May investigates what history reveals about system collapse, failed cities, and civilizations that didn’t survive climate shocks. Were they doomed? Or did they miss warning signs we’re seeing today?

With climate disasters and global warming accelerating, researchers Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn break down the common patterns behind civilization collapse — and the 5 strategies that can help modern societies avoid the same fate.

If you’ve ever wondered:

Is it the end of the world?

When do systems collapse?

Can cities survive climate change?

How do we prevent total societal collapse?

This episode explores what history teaches us — and why it’s not too late to change course.

Because collapse isn’t inevitable. But survival isn’t automatic either.

When I created this blog, I called it "A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it." I've shifted away from that, making this more "A blog about sustainability with a science fiction slant and a Detroit perspective," as it says on the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page (if you're still on Facebook, please follow), but I've never changed the description here after 15 years. That's because, deep down, I still believe in the mission I set for myself in March 2011.

On that note, here are the five strategies Maiya May and her guests propose to avoid collapse: situational awareness, adaptation, speed, democracy, and storytelling. On this blog, I'm sharing and telling stories to make people more aware of the situation, get prepared for the future, and encourage speedy responses and democracy. The last two seem like contradictions, as democracy is not known for rapid decisions, but I agree with May and her guests that both are necessary, if not easy. I hope my readers and I are up for the task.

Today is also Presidents Day, but I decided sharing the above was more important and productive than writing this year's version of John Oliver on 'Trump 2.0' for Presidents Day. Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump gets enough attention and I want to starve him of his narcissistic supply. Instead, I'm sharing National Day Calendar's PRESIDENTS DAY | Third Monday in February.

On the third Monday in February, the United States celebrates the federal holiday known as Presidents Day. The day takes place during the birth month of the country's two most prominent presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. While the day once only honored President George Washington on his birthday, February 22nd, the day now never lands on a single president's birthday.

Across the country, most Americans know the day as Presidents Day. More and more of the population celebrates the day to honor all of the past United States Presidents who have served the country. Throughout the country, organizations and communities celebrate the day with public ceremonies.

Marlo Anderson celebrated all the Presidents' pets, which reminded me that Hoover Harding Cleveland is in fairly sparse company. As Wikipedia notes, "Only James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, and Donald Trump did not have any presidential pets while in office" — something else Hoover Harding Cleveland has in common with Andrew Johnson besides having a majority of Senators vote to convict him after being impeached!

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for more holidays, as tomorrow is a triple celebration of Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, and a solar eclipse on Tuesday.

Doomsday Clock now at 85 seconds to midnight, least time ever — again!

I closed The Marsh Family sings 'Donald's Sewage Stream' with a program note and question: "Stay tuned for this year's unveiling of the Doomsday Clock. How many seconds to midnight are we now?" The answer is 85 seconds to midnight. Reuters has the video with the preview image, description, and soundbite, Atomic 'Doomsday Clock' ticks closer than ever to midnight.

Atomic scientists set their 'Doomsday Clock' closer than ever to midnight, citing aggressive behavior by nuclear powers Russia, China and the US, fraying nuclear arms control, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and AI worries among factors driving risks for global disaster.

Reuters forgot climate change among the "factors driving risks for global disaster." That written, I'm not surprised we're four seconds closer to doomsday. Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump's raid and coup in Venezuela and threats to Greenland alone justify advancing the clock.

Now for the 2026 Doomsday Clock Announcement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists themselves.

Since 2012, the Doomsday Clock time has either shifted closer to midnight or stayed the same.

In 2012, the Clock was moved to 5 minutes to midnight.

In 2015, it was moved to 3 minutes.

In 2017, it was moved to 2 ½ minutes.

In 2018, it was moved to 2 minutes.

In 2020, it was moved to 100 seconds.

In 2023, it was moved to 90 seconds.

Last year, it was moved to 89 seconds.

Today, it was moved to 85 seconds to midnight.

Leading experts who study existential risks believe humanity is the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe.

In the Doomsday Clock statement, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) releases side bars on each of the threats the Clock reflects—nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies, and biological threats.

Across the board, excerpts from the SASB’s statement reflect a world that is failing to combat the most consequential threats humanity faces.

From the acceleration of a renewed nuclear arms race to the rise of nationalistic autocracies around the world, 2025 was an exceedingly dangerous year.

But what many don’t realize is that the Doomsday Clock can turn—and has turned—backwards. Eight times, to be exact.

Whether it does so again is up to humanity’s ability to learn from the past and to dedicate our time, effort, and resources to building a future where people can live free from the danger of existential threats.

In the Clock statement, the SASB notes that “national leaders–particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China–must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink” and that “citizens must insist they do so.”

Until that happens…

IT IS 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT.

Those are all the time changes since I began writing this blog in 2011. On the one hand, yay, we've survived this long! On the other, the steady movement of the hands of the clock to midnight since 2012 is depressing and alarming. It's certainly not scaring the people now in power into behaving better.

That's a wrap for today's post. Stay tuned for another brief entry worth sharing next month, which begins Sunday.

PBS Terra explains 'This Is How the World Ends According to Science'

I promised a more involved post yesterday and Weathered on PBS Terra helped deliver it by explaining This Is How the World Ends According to Science.

There’s an 18% chance that global warming exceeds four degrees by 2100 and that’s not a small risk when the stakes are civilization-ending.

In this episode of Weathered, host Maiya May talks with civilization collapse researcher Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn about why high-end warming scenarios are often dismissed as “doomerism,” even though worst-case planning is standard in most fields. We break down how uncertainty in climate sensitivity and political derailment could push warming higher than expected and how climate shocks can trigger cascading failures across food systems, financial markets, and geopolitics. Understanding the climate endgame isn’t pessimism. It’s risk management.

Before I address the science, I'm making a meta comment about what I've seen on PBS YouTube channels and PBS and NPR websites since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was defunded; public media has become more opposed, even antagnostic, to Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump's policies since. If the authors of Project 2025 thought public media was biting the hand that fed them, they might be surprised at how much their hands are being bitten now that they're not feeding public media!

As for the science, I've mentioned multiple times that current temperatures are the same as 125,000 years ago and CO₂ levels are the same as 3.6 million years ago. That was just before the Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period or Pliocene Thermal Maximum. The worst case scenario by 2100 has temperatures reaching those of the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum or Middle Miocene Thermal Maximum, about 15 million years ago. Here are two highlights from Wikipedia.

The Arctic was ice free and warm enough to host permanent forest cover across much of its extent. Iceland had a humid and subtropical climate...Dense, humid rainforests covered much of France, Switzerland, and northern Germany, while southern and central Spain were arid and contained open environments.

That's a very different world from today.

Speaking of today's world, the L.A. fires serve as an example where climate change is already causing disasters, which the current administration denies. Looking forward to the future, a possible collapse of the AMOC would be catastrophic and magnified by our economic system. Yikes!

All this ties into last year's most read post, 'Weathered' explains 'This Is EXACTLY How Much Poorer Climate Change Will Make Every Person on Earth'. Maiya May didn't directly address this, but maybe she'll revisit climate change's effects on individual pocketbooks in the promised part two. Stay tuned.

'How cheap renewable energy is finally flattening emissions' is Science Magazine's 2025 Breakthrough of the Year

I'm beginning my year-end retrospectives with Science Magazine explaining How cheap renewable energy is finally flattening emissions, its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

For decades, rising carbon emissions have accelerated climate change, but this year marked a critical turning point that could finally reverse that trend. Renewable energy has now graduated beyond the need for subsidies and incentives, emerging as a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels in many countries. News Editor Tim Appenzeller and policy expert Li Shuo describe the economic forces behind this shift, and the obstacles that remain to the continued rise of green energy.
...
1:15 The graph has mislabeled trend lines. "Other renewables" generate more energy than hydropower alone.

This is the same good news reported in PBS Terra says 'We Just Crossed Our FIRST Tipping Point… And It’s NOT What You Think'.

Unlike passing the other tipping points, like the AMOC, permafrost, West Antarctic ice sheet, and coral reefs, passing the renewable energy tipping point is good news. I wrote about it in DW News asks 'Earth Overshoot Day: What can we do to try live within the planet’s limits?'

[C]onvincing people to be less wasteful, particularly creating less food waste and eating less meat, especially beef, would be helpful. [One] could consider that to be a technology. So is renewable energy. Between the two, it would move Earth Overshoot Day back more than a month. Progress!

Yes, it is, and it's good news I can share with my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Science Magazine's video is shorter and more focused than PBS Terra's, so it's one I'm more likely to show to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.

Here are the runners-up:

• Custom gene editing shows promise for ultrarare diseases
• New weapons against a sexual scourge
• Neurons make a deadly donation to cancer cells
• An all-seeing eye on the sky
• Face to face with a Denisovan
• Large language models do science
• Triumph of calculation helps resolve particle mystery
• Xenotransplants set new records
• Rice that beats the heat

Including the "winner," that's four health stories, two computer science stories, one of which is also a physics story, an astronomy story, an evolution story, a genetics story that touches on climate change, and an energy story that also touches on climate change. Six of these are biology in some form, so these selections please me as a biologist. One of them is also paleontology, so I'm doubly pleased as a paleontologist. All of that is on top of the good sustainability news.

Not all of 2025's science stories were good. Follow over the jump for the bad news this year.

PBS Terra warns 'You’re Not Worried Enough About Sea Level Rise'

Today's evergreen educational entry is Weathered on PBS Terra warning You’re Not Worried Enough About Sea Level Rise.

New research shows sea level rise could accelerate far faster than cities can adapt to. In this episode, Maiya breaks down why even today’s warming may already be enough to trigger long-term ice-sheet collapse. And what that means for our coasts, our cities, and our future.

I lectured on climate change last night and when the last video played, the preview for this video appeared on screen. I told my students I would watch it when I got home and I did! After watching it, it reminded me of the following questions from My students are watching 'Chasing Ice' during Earth Week.

17. What is happening to Greenland's melt zone as the climate changes?

It's expanding and moving up and into the interior of the ice sheet.

18. How much will sea level rise during the lifetimes of Balog's daughters?

1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 to 1 meter).

19. How many people will the rising sea level displace?

About 150 million.

20. What effect will rising sea level have on hurricanes and typhoons?

It will make the storm surges higher, making them more damaging.

The video also reminded me of One foot sea level rise by 2050 according to U.S. government study: "[T]hose maps of selected coastlines are horrifying." That was for one foot of sea level rise. Fifteen meters (50 feet) of sea level rise by 2300 is even more so. That's what would happen if temperatures in the near future reach those of 3.6 million years ago, the last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as today. Even sustained temperatures as high as today are the same as 125,000 years ago, when sea levels were 20-30 feet higher and the octopus evidence indicates that the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed. We don't have to warm more; we just have to stay as warm as we are now.

That's a wrap for today's evergreen educational entry. I have another one planned tomorrow.

PBS Eons examines 'What Was Greenland Like When it Was Green'

I promised "an evergreen educational post" today, so I'm sharing PBS Eons examining What Was Greenland Like When it Was Green.

It made the front page of the New York Times. Ancient DNA over 2 million years old, retrieved from the frozen dirt of Greenland. It reached back further in time than many scientists used to think was even theoretically possible. And it contained the genetic ghost of an /entire ecosystem/ – one that has no counterpart in today’s world and one that we had /no idea/ even existed. It told of a time when Greenland was green…and how we might borrow genes from that ancient past to help us adapt to the future.

This story should look familiar to my readers. It's the one told in "Hunt for the Oldest DNA," the NOVA episode that won Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

I was glad to be wrong about "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA, the winner.

This is the only episode of NOVA nominated and I agree it's probably the best one of 2024. It's also the nominee with the most important science. That written, it's not likely to win the most votes, since most of the electorate will judge the nominees for their cinematic and journalistic merit, not their scientific value. As I reiterate nearly every time I write about awards shows, electorates matter.

The News & Doc Emmy voters pleasantly surprised me by voting for the nominee with the most important science. Congratulations to them and NOVA!

The Earth 2.4 million years ago, during the earliest Pleistocene, wasn't as warm as it was 3.6 million years ago, the last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as today, but it's a good analog just the same. If that's the future we're heading towards, then it might be a good idea to borrow the adaptations those organisms had to prepare today's organisms for the warmer world that's coming. That's a Crazy Eddie concept, but I'm enough of a Crazy Eddie to approve of it.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for another evergreen educational entry tomorrow.