Chief Scientist @BerkeleyEarth. Physics PhD & data nerd. Usually focused on climate change, fossil fuels, & air quality issues.
Zurich, Switzerland
Joined January 2017
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It's a hard time for everyone. I work for a small non-profit, @BerkeleyEarth, and we need your help.
We fund our work with grants & donations. If you like our work on climate change, and have a bit spare, perhaps consider making a donation.
Thank you.
donate.berkeleyearth.org/
Weather models are good for only 7-10 days at most.
And yet, we can confidently predict that summer will be warmer than winter. That's true both from experience and from physics.
Climate science helps to determine what aspects of earth's weather can be predicted long-term.
Dr. Robert Rohde retweeted
We often forget how far we have come: Today almost 3/4 of EU electricity generation is from non-fossil energy sources.
It is not long ago that fossil fuels dominated the EU's electricity mix.
This year their share is approaching 1/4 of EU electricity generation.
Source is @ember_energy
The same data on a log scale shows that for the first couple of decades of China's solar development, it was almost a zero sum game.
The amount of energy poured into solar panel production was nearly equal to the entire amount being generated, but a separation has now developed.
The exponential rise of Chinese solar power feeds on itself.
Continued growth of solar production in China requires ever greater amounts of energy, but the energy being captured by the solar panels installed in China has grown even faster.
A virtuous cycle with energy to spare.
Over the last 10 years, the world spent ~$70 trillion on fossil fuels and associated infrastructure. They provide 76% of global energy.
Over the same time, ~$3.5 trillion was spent on wind & solar, which now provide 6% of global energy.
Pretty good value for the investment.
The explosive, exponential growth of solar energy makes it the fastest growing energy technology in history.
Cheap to build and fast to deploy, solar installations grew 10-fold in the last 10 years and provided 6.7% of the world's electricity in 2024.
The future is very sunny.
Dr. Robert Rohde retweeted
The amount of water vapor pulsing across our skies set a record in 2024.
So far, 2025 is on pace to top that record.
A novel analysis in today's @washingtonpost, called floods above, dives deep into changing integrated vapor transport — and areas vulnerable to these changes 🧵
If there is any reason for optimism, it is this.
Solar energy is growing at a faster pace than any energy technology in history, and wind is not far behind.
The explosive growth of solar, wind, & batteries creates the potential for a rapid transition, though as yet unrealized.
Unfortunately though, "percentage of energy" is fairly optimistic framing.
In absolute terms, natural gas and oil use have continued to grow.
Renewables are expanding faster, and thus grabbing a bigger share, but we are still very far from a clean energy transition.
This change is more noticeable if one focuses on just electricity (rather than all forms of energy), as the rise of solar and wind electricity have been grabbing market share at a rapid pace.
I thoroughly believe in celebrating the small victories, so here is a tiny one.
The percentage of humanity's energy system that is derived from fossil fuels, ticked down again in 2024 and is now technically at the lowest level since the 1960s, though fossil fuels still dominate.
I hope Scott Adams gets any medical treatment he needs.
I hope everyone does.
But it is hard to imagine a clearer example of how f-ed up and broken the USA medical system is than watching a wealthy and connected person get help that normal people could never hope for.
Interviews can get unexpectedly canceled for all sorts of reasons, but having the new Editor-in-Chief summarily fire the whole climate team is certainly memorable.
Dr. Robert Rohde retweeted
NEWS: CBS News gutted its climate team as part of the big Paramount layoffs this week. These journalists had been doing incredible reporting on extreme heat, flooding, clean energy investments and more.
I've got details for Climate-Colored Goggles: climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/…
Dr. Robert Rohde retweeted
Good perspective and reminder that outside the US, climate change is taken much more seriously
Today is the 282nd day of Trump's second term.
It is also the 29th day of the current government shutdown.
The government has now been shutdown for more than 10% of Trump's second term.