Articles
Climate Science
Raymond N. Johnson’s monthly column, also in the Press-Republican. Every column since 2009. Also on Substack →
172 columns on Fossil fuels
September 12, 2026Transitions Often Brings Out Creativity, New Ideas and Solutions
August 29, 2026Transitions are Messy and Our Move to Renewables is no Exception
July 9, 2026The Arctic: Climate Change is Changing the Chemistry … and More
June 13, 2026He Is on The Way - El-Nino That Is
May 9, 2026Climate, Renewables, War: Trying to Make Sense of it All
April 12, 2026Stable Climate: In Balance; Today: Imbalanced
March 14, 2026Renewables and Electrification: Still Going Strong Everywhere
February 14, 2026Climate Science: “Rise of the Renewables”
January 14, 2026The Arctic Is Changing: The John Franklin Expedition
November 8, 2025Our Planet Earth is Rare and So Are Many of its Elements
October 11, 2025And The Renewable Energy Story Continues: It is Unstoppable
September 13, 2025All Things Electric: Ferries, Buses, Cars. It’s Happening; Now.
August 9, 2025Flash Drought, Heat Domes and More
July 12, 2025Extreme Weather, Climate Change, Global Warming: It is Here
June 14, 2025Planet Earth is Still Warming and the Effects Are Obvious
May 17, 2025With Warming Climate, Planting Zones Are Changing: Animals Are Noticing Too
April 10, 2025Renewable Energy; Good News, Really!
March 15, 2025Climate News and Weather Forecasts, but Climate Data May Be Hard to Find
December 15, 2024Earth’s Climate System: Complex, But Our Understanding Grows
December 15, 2024NOAA's 2024 Arctic Report Card says tundra is now a net source of carbon to the atmosphere
November 12, 2024The Oceans, Their Complexity and Their Major Role in Earth’s Climate
September 14, 2024Earth Time is Changing and Renewables Too
August 15, 2024New Vocabulary, Intense Rainfall, Renewables, and Then Norway
July 15, 2024We Have Been Through Energy Transitions Before
May 18, 2024Change is in the Air, and That Does Not Mean the Seasons
April 14, 2024Dunkelflaute? Zombie Fires? New Issues and Words Used in the Climate Crisis
March 22, 2024Sea Surface Temperatures are High: Good Chance for Another Record Weather Year
February 10, 2024F.U.D. … A Climate Related Acronym
January 19, 2024“Let’s Do the Numbers,” For Earth’s Climate That Is
December 16, 2023COP 28, … And The Circus Continues
November 15, 2023Dueling Banjo’s: Dueling Energy Report and Giant Oil’s Responsd
October 15, 2023Climate Chaos: Climate Anxiety and the S-Curve
September 15, 2023This and That; Climate Chaos Has Many Fronts
August 19, 2023The “Out of the Mouth of Babes” Proverb Shows the Wisdom of Youth and Helps in Our Fight Against Climate Chaos
July 25, 2023Geologists Say We Are in the Holocene Epoch; Others Call it “Anthropocene,” Some, “Pyrocene”
June 11, 2023Solar: Reducing Carbon Emissions from Transportation and Power Generation
May 15, 2023Perspective: The Nations Clean Power Goals Will Require Changes In
April 8, 2023Connectedness, The Recent Climate IPCC Report, and More
March 15, 2023Youth at Work! … Also, We Now Have a New Mantra, “Electrify Everything.”
February 10, 2023In Time?: Globally, The World Invested $1.1 Trillion in 2022 on Renewables
January 15, 2023A Distant View of Earth: “Earth Set” from Beyond the Moon
December 15, 2022Antarctica: A Birthday of Sorts, The Antarctic Treaty
November 12, 2022Permafrost Regions: What is Happening There?
October 8, 2022Science and Research: Understanding the Workings of Our Planet
September 15, 2022Transportation and the Transition Revolution
August 22, 2022Time for a Refresher: Basic Climate Change Science and Current Trends
July 15, 2022It’s All About Time, Do We Need a New Name for Earth’s Condition Today?
June 14, 2022Let’s Talk About Biomass: Is It Really Part of the Climate Solution?
May 12, 2022PPM Means a Lot in Climate Science: Just Like in Wine or Cooking
April 29, 2022Energy of all Kinds: Plans for Change do Change
March 14, 2022Doomsday Vault, the Black Box and Renewables: Quite A Mix
February 15, 2022Blue Hydrogen, Green Hydrogen; What’s with these Colors and Their Connection to Climate Change?
January 7, 2022Greenwashing? What Does This Have to do With Climate Change?
December 11, 2021Oceans: Our Buddy for Ameliorating Climate Change; But There Are Limits
August 15, 2021Domes, the Climate Crises and the Energy Transition
July 15, 2021An Artist and Science Look at Sea Level Rise, Drought and More
June 9, 2021Maya Lin, Ghost Trees and Sea Level Rise
May 8, 2021Climate Crises: The New Clock is Ticking, and it’s in Union Square, NYC, No Less
April 15, 2021Rivers of Air, Rivers of Water: Major Parts of our Changing Climate System
March 13, 2021Greenland: A World Apart is Changing
February 13, 2021Transitions, Transitions and More Transitions
January 15, 2021We Have a Climate Emissions “Gap” Problem but Solutions Exist
December 15, 2020Climate Change: Banks Are a Major Source of the Problem ... and the Solution
November 15, 2020Transitions, Disruptions, Problems and Possibilities
October 15, 2020The Science of Climate Change and the Role of Greenhouse Gases
September 15, 2020Supply and Demand: It Matters, and Some Oil Companies Are Getting the Message
August 7, 2020Pandemic or Not, Large Renewables Projects are Moving Forward
July 11, 2020Transitions and Disruptions of the Status Quo
June 11, 2020In New York State the Grid [Not Grill] Just Got Cleaner
May 8, 2020Phenology: It’s All In The Timing
April 13, 2020Climate Change, Clean Energy Transition, and now COVID-19
March 31, 2020There are Report Cards, and Then, .... There are Report Cards
February 15, 2020Small Particles from Combustion of Fossil Fuels Impact Human Health
January 16, 2020Renewable Energy: Coming of Age, Here and Now, and Perhaps Just in Time [?]
December 13, 2019Tuktoyaktuk: An Inuvialuit Town at the Frontline of Climate Change
November 15, 2019Yes, Carbon Dioxide is really the Problem
October 15, 2019Climate Change: Climate Crises, What are We Doing?
September 15, 2019Climate Change and Losses
August 15, 2019Climate Change: Are Trees The Solution?
July 15, 2019Climate Change and the Irony of it all
June 8, 2019Climate, Its Complexity and the Clean Disruption
May 10, 2019Climate Change and the Guard Dog Theory
April 17, 2019Convergence: How Climate Change Brought Two Women Artists Together
March 9, 2019Climate Change and The Power of One
January 10, 2019Climate Change: People vs. Entrenched Interests
December 9, 2018Tapas, Tapas and More Tapas; Some Actions, Good and Not so Good, Impacting Climate Change
November 11, 2018Climate Reports, Warnings and Progress on Renewable Wind Power
October 11, 2018“That thou canst not stir a flower / Without troubling of a star” – Climate and Man
August 12, 2018Summer, Aphelion, Temperature Extremes: Earth's Climate
July 15, 2018Climate Science and Smorgasbord Have a Lot in Common
June 9, 2018Leadership and Climate Change
May 13, 2018“Extra! Extra! Read All About It!”
April 8, 2018ERoEI and Climate Change
March 1, 2018Coal: Are We Beating a Dead Horse?
February 1, 2018Artists Engage the Science of Climate Change
January 7, 2018The Clean Disruption: Will Help Reduce Emissions Causing Climate Change
December 3, 2017Climate Change: the Clean Disruption Continues
November 15, 2017Climate Change and the Great Disruption
October 7, 2017Climate Change: Carbon Diem
September 3, 2017Climate Change and Y2K
August 9, 2017Climate Science: It’s Carbon Dioxide Silly!
June 15, 2017Climate Science: Step Forward and Half Step Back
May 7, 2017Climate Change and Earth’s Carbon Budget
April 2, 2017Climate Change; Whales and Wind Energy
March 4, 2017Climate Change and An Earlier Energy Transformation
February 5, 2017Climate Change: Strawberry or Watermelon Ice?
January 15, 2017Volcanos and Climate Change: It’s All in the Numbers
December 6, 2016Climate Change: Our Children’s Trust
November 6, 2016Climate Change Changes Everything
October 2, 2016Is It Sin Nombre or Climate Change?
September 15, 2016Yes, Climate Change is Evident, Right Now
August 15, 2016Climate Change: The Story Continues
June 15, 2016Climate Change and Ocean Impacts
May 30, 2016Climate Change and the New “Re-new”
March 6, 2016Climate Change: Wit, Whimsy and Sea Level Rise
February 6, 2016Climate Change: Alarmism or Realism?
January 3, 2016“History is a Race Between Education and Catastrophe”: Climate Change
December 3, 2015“The Times They Are A-Changing”: Climate Change
November 1, 2015A Tale of Three Dimes and Climate Change
October 4, 2015Climate Change, What Me Worry?
September 26, 2015Carbon Atoms, Like Ice Cream, Have Different Flavors Too
August 15, 2015“Laudato Si” (Praise Be to You); Pope Francis Sides With Climate Change
July 15, 2015Permanent Press and Permafrost: Are They Really Permanent?
June 15, 2015Climate Change: “Death by a Thousand Cuts”?
May 1, 2015Can One-Half Trillion Dollars Evaporate? Coal and Fossil Fuel Based Investments Can
March 2, 2015Nuclear Energy: “Too Cheap to Meter”?
February 1, 2015Trees Remove Carbon Dioxide From Air and Help Moderate Earth’s Climate
January 4, 2015The Sun, Seasons and Global Warming
December 7, 2014Climate Data Continue to Indicate Global Warming
November 15, 2014War on Coal? Absolutely Not, But We must Stop Burning It
October 5, 2014Climate Change Mission Impossible? Maybe, Maybe NotSeptember 7, 2014Respiration: The Earth Breathes Too
August 4, 2014“The Wind of Change is Blowing.....” Climate and Energy
July 13, 2014Is the “Handwriting on the Wall” for Coal? Perhaps.
June 1, 2014Climate Change: Coal Emissions Impacts us All
May 4, 2014Megatons to Megawatts: all about energy, carbon dioxide emissions
April 5, 2014The Climate is Changing: How About Us?
January 15, 2014Solar: One of Many Renewable Solutions for Our Energy Needs
December 1, 2013Science Supports Changing Climate: Positive Efforts with Renewables Underway
November 3, 2013Coal: An Inexpensive Source of Energy With Many “Externalities”
September 15, 2013Climate Science: Big Numbers, Geography and Land Use Changes
July 25, 2013Ocean Temperatures and Fisheries Tell Their Own Climate Change Story
June 8, 2013Climate Change: New Milestone Has Been Set
March 15, 2013We May Ignore or Deny It, But Climate Change is Occurring
February 15, 2013Three Numbers That Will Define Our Climate Future
January 15, 2013Climate Change Consensus and a Call to “Photovoltaic” Arms
October 15, 2012Solar Energy: Clean Source of Electricity for the Planet
September 15, 2012A Convergence: New Gardening Map and Temperature Area Records Agree
August 15, 2012Carbon and Its Compounds Have Many Properties
July 15, 2012Towards Energy Independence: Blowing in the Wind
June 15, 2012Oceans Absorbing Lots of Carbon Dioxide from Fossil Fuels: But it Comes With a Cost
April 15, 2012Earth’s Oceans: A Heat Sink for Energy
March 15, 2012We Don’t Have a Carbon Dioxide Problem: We Have an Energy Problem
February 15, 2012Billions of Dead Trees: the New Canary in a Cage?
January 15, 2012Leadership In the Face of Climate Change: Steady but Slow Progress
December 15, 2011Climate Legacies, Past, Present and Future
September 15, 2011Denmark: Unified on Climate and Energy Plan for Future
August 15, 2011Past Temperature Changes Have Current Meaning
April 15, 2011Climate Science: Indicators of Human Fingerprint on Climate Change
February 15, 2011Fossil fuel dependence affecting climate change
January 15, 2011Black Carbon: Part 2 Changing Glaciers in Asia
December 15, 2010Black carbon growing piece of climate change puzzle
November 15, 2010Carbon dioxide: the 800-pound gorilla that we have to talk about
September 15, 2010Climate skepticism reminiscent of Galileo's plight
August 15, 2010Coal consumption: carbon dioxide and Earth's energy imbalance
June 15, 2010Earth's climate changes - a long story
March 15, 2010The sun: driver of all weather
December 15, 2009Permafrost and methane - a chilling story
November 15, 2009Greenhouse gases: What are they? Why the concern?August 15, 2009Going north to discuss climate change
July 15, 2009The carbon dioxide story - cont'dJune 15, 2009Climate Change: And so what's wrong with carbon dioxide anyway?