February 2026 – Climate Science: “Rise of the Renewables”

Climate Science: “Rise of the Renewables”

No, this is not some new geological era, epoch, or age.

No, it is not some science fiction story either.

But yes, we find ourselves at anew point in human history where for the first time renewables are the cheapest form of energy to run, … well, just about anything.

This is from an editorial in the journal Science on 18 Dec 2025 that goes on to say that Science has selected Rise of the Renewables as its “Breakthrough of the Year”. It goes on to say that “ many of the technologies that have led to this remarkable rise were developed in the United States ” over the past decades.

But not anymore. “ China is reaping the benefits economically, supplying 80% of the world’s solar cells, 70% of its wind turbines, and 70% of its lithium batteries”. David Gelles, a New York Times reporter said recently, “Chinese solar panels are literally the cheapest form of energy we have ever had on Earth.” And this technology gap will only widen as the U. S. administration focuses on fossil fuels.

And, let’s move on to what is going on out side our window right now.

So, what is happening with our weather of late with lots of very cold temperatures and several severe storms moving south from the Arctic and spreading across North America ? The details are not clear, but it seems we have a “broken fence.”

According to Bob Henson, meteorologist, a lot of very frigid air can build up when it is dark for 24 hours a day over or near the North Pole. And normally, we see a “stable polar vortex” as illustrated at the left, of the two diagrams of Earth. This graphic is from NOAA climate. gov, 2021. NOTE: Be aware that many climate websites have been taken down, or information altered, in the past year. NOAA is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Normally the jet-stream circles the North Pole and the Arctic Circle and contains the very frigid air in a stable fashion as shown. However, global warming within the Arctic Circle has been nearly four times faster than the global average for a variety of reasons; less ice cover so more energy is absorbed in the dark ocean water and not reflected back into space, reduced snow cover with a darker land surface absorbing more solar energy and more.[See Wikipedia. org/polar_vortex].

In the right portion of that NOAA illustration titled “disrupted polar vortex” there are times when that “arctic fence” can break down and the frigid air can spill out of the Arctic and move south, as it has done a few times over North America in the past months.

As shown, the wrinkles or waves in the fence allows frigid air to move south and a bulge of warmer air can move north changing the more normal weather patterns.

What may also be influencing this pattern is the warmer than normal temperatures of the northeast Pacific Ocean. See the illustration labeled “Dramatic Rise in Sea Surface Temperatures” provided by Inside Climate News, January 9, 2026. This “blob” of much warmer water can provide the energy needed to change the usual behavior of the “fence.”

And it is not just the warm pool of water in the North Pacific; it is warmer water everywhere. See the illustration titled “Ocean Warming Over the Past Six Decades,” also from Inside Climate News, January 9, 2026. With oceans covering 70% of Earth’s surface the impact of all of this latent heat, energy, will have a significant impact on Earth’s weather patterns and contribute to the extreme weather events we are experiencing. The 65-year data set shows a steady and increasing warming in the recent years.

As seen in the bar chart from Climate Central the last 10 years have been the warmest in the 150-year plus climate record.[See “The 10 Hottest Global Years on Climate Record ”].

Odds and Ends:

–Plugin vehicles pass ed seventy-five million cumulative sales globally when 1. 3 million plugin vehicles were sold in China in November 2025 alone. According to Zachary Shahan of CleanTechnica, the number of plugins could reach 150 million globally in the next 2-3 years.

— Also, according to CleanTechnica, 3 February 2026, Europe registered 453, 000 plugin vehicles in December alone.

–2. 5 million is the estimated number of people who had to leave their homes in the United States due to climate -related disasters according to U. S Census[Environmental Defense Fund, Summer 2025].

— Trees and Land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?[The Guardian, October 14, 2024].

— According to “The 2024 state of the climate report, ” human population is increasing about 201, 000 per day.

–Two “electrostates” are rising ; India and China[as per Google Gemini]. The U. Sand the West are called “petrostates.”

— A group of wind farms in Britain has been approved that will provide 8. 4 gigawatts of electricity that can power twelve million homes ![NYTimes January 2026].

— And then we have a Canadian entrepreneur, Jay Goodsell, whose company is developing an airship to transport heavy loads from and to challenging locations powered by solar energy. The photo,[Globe and Mail, January 20, 2026, Supplied], shows the Solar Ship in flight.

And, so it goes.

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