Justine Calma

The Department of Energy announced funding today for nine different heat pump projects across 15 sites in the US. This is the first round of funds stemming from Joe Biden’s authorization of the use of the Defense Production Act in 2022 to boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies including heat pumps. It’s a more environmentally friendly appliance that’s starting to replace traditional heating and air conditioning.

Called GraphCast, Google’s new AI model was able to make 10-day weather forecasts faster and with greater precision than a traditional model. It outperformed the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in 90 percent of test cases. How? Google’s model was trained on historical data and leverages deep-learning hardware to make forecasts more efficiently.

Americans have a worse opinion of science now than they did before the covid-19 pandemic. It doesn’t come as a surprise after all the disinformation that’s been swirling around since then. Now we can see how much trust in science has eroded in the latest survey by the Pew Research Center. The number of participants who say science “has had a mostly positive impact on society” fell from 73 percent in 2019 to 57 percent today.

That’s how University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy describes how explosive Hurricane Otis’ growth was right before it slammed into Acapulco, Mexico. It strengthened into a devastating Category 5 hurricane in record time, catching residents and forecasters off guard. The storm killed at least 27 people when it hit Wednesday, and residents are still reeling from what is likely to be one of the costliest storms to hit Mexico. Tropical storms draw strength from heat energy, allowing them to intensify more rapidly with climate change.