All Posts (Since 2018)

Now that China will no longer take it, the U.S. and other countries will have to deal with their own plastic waste

News

Recycling plastic is a challenge.  Over the past few decades, plastic “recycling” has in fact consisted–about half the time–of sending that plastic to China (often through Hong Kong).  China and Hong Kong “have imported 72% of all plastic waste.” But, this route is now at an end.  As of January 2018, China has banned the import of “nonindustrial plastic waste.”  As a result, according to…

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Using the Allam Cycle to generate electricity and capture CO2

News

As of May 30, 2018, a supercritical carbon dioxide demonstration power plant began operation in Texas, USA.  Operated by NET Power, LLC, the technology is powered by natural gas and generates electricity using CO2 itself to run the turbine.  The technology–called the “Allam Cycle”–may eliminate “virtually all emissions from natural gas power generation without requiring expensive … carbon capture equipment.” Traditional natural gas power plants…

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Hurricanes are slowing down and are becoming more dangerous

News

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey moved very slowly across parts of Texas (USA) dropping “more than 30 inches of rain in two days and nearly 50 inches over four days.”  “Harvey’s rainfall exceeded every known flooding event in American history since 1899.” The reason for the high rainfall totals was the slow movement of the storm–and a 2018 study reports that “between 1949 and 2016, tropical…

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Antarctica’s ice is melting faster and the seas are rising

Intersections

Most of the world’s fresh water is found frozen in Antarctica.  And, that ice is melting today–and the melting is happening at an increasing rate.  A new study estimates that the rate of melting “has tripled since 2007.”  At this rate, the melting ice will “contribute 6 inches to sea-level rise by 2100.” While this may not seem threatening occurring over decades, it will cause…

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Water and the West

Intersections

**updated June 2025** Lack of fresh water for agricultural use and for human consumption is a growing and very serious problem globally–including in rich countries.  Read this article (Henry Fountain, New York Times, May 24, 2018) for a look at how climate change is affecting rivers in the western United States.  The Rio Grande and the Colorado, two major western U.S. rivers, are experiencing significantly…

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Is there a “tipping point” for public opinion?

News

**An updated version of this post was published on November 2, 2025.** How and when does an established viewpoint of a society change? What does it take for a society (a very large group of people) to alter its collective opinion? Is there a “tipping point” for public opinion? A recent study using a naming game discovered that when a minority viewpoint became held by…

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