Matt Simon

Don’t Believe the Biggest Myth About Heat Pumps

If you’re one of the 100 percent of humans who lives somewhere warmer than –460 Fahrenheit, we’ve got good news: You probably qualify for a heat pump. Instead of generating heat, this emissions-slashing superhero transfers warmth from even freezing outdoor air into your home. If the air is warmer than …

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The World Is Ignoring the Other Deadly Kind of Carbon

Once again, vast expanses of Canadian wilderness are on fire, threatening towns and forcing thousands to flee. It appears to be a breakout of “zombie fires”: wildfires from last year that never actually went out completely but carried on smoldering underground, reigniting ground vegetation again this year. They’ve been pouring …

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These Electric School Buses Are on Their Way to Save the Grid

The big yellow school bus is a US icon, but perhaps not one that future Americans will remember fondly. Chugging through neighborhoods, idling in front of kids’ houses, the vehicles spew both noise and fossil-fuel pollution all across town. In a city like Oakland, California, that significantly worsens air quality, …

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City Trees Save Lives

The humble tree has long protected humans from sickness and even death—and in the modern city, it’s still doing so. As global temperatures rise, so too does the “urban heat island effect”—the tendency for cities to absorb and hold on to the sun’s energy, which is a growing public-health crisis …

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The One Thing Holding Back Heat Pumps

If billionaires actually cared about saving the planet, they’d pool their vast wealth and buy everyone a heat pump. Instead of burning planet-warming fossil fuels, these appliances extract warmth from even freezing outdoor air and transfer it into a building, thanks to neat tricks of physics. In the summer, they …

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Get Ready for Monster Hurricanes This Summer

For over a year, global ocean temperatures have been consistently shattering records, shocking scientists. Now hurricane watchers are getting even more worried, given that ocean heat is what fuels the biggest, most destructive cyclones. Researchers at the University of Arizona just predicted an extremely active North Atlantic season—which runs from …

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Green Roofs Are Great. Blue-Green Roofs Are Even Better

You might visit Amsterdam for its famous canals, and who could blame you, really. But the truly interesting waterways aren’t under your feet—they’re above your head. Beautiful green roofs have popped up all over the world: specially selected plants growing on structures specially designed to manage the extra weight of …

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US Infrastructure Is Broken. Here’s an $830 Million Plan to Fix It

There’s one word that will get any American fuming, regardless of their political inclination: infrastructure. Pothole-pocked roads, creaky bridges, and half-baked public transportation bind us nationally like little else can. And that was before climate change’s coastal flooding, extreme heat, and supercharged wildfires came around to make things even worse. …

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The Paradox That's Supercharging Climate Change

No good deed goes unpunished—and that includes trying to slow climate change. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, humanity will spew out fewer planet-cooling aerosols—small particles of pollution that act like tiny umbrellas to bounce some of the sun’s energy back into space. “Even more important than this direct reflection effect, …

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