Eliza Barclay

Silos for Sunshine: we've mastered harvesting the sun, but storage is the gamechanger | Ember The shift to renewables represents an agricultural revolution for energy, moving from searching and extracting scarce fuels to harvesting abundant sunlight in place.

"Much as granaries and refrigeration transformed food markets, storage will turn electricity from perishable to persistent, unlocking a new era of energy abundance."

Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics The world’s biggest manufacturer now has an interest in the world decarbonising

The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."

I have a @nytimes.com op-ed today on managing power demand growth. Central point: load growth is an opportunity to *offset* upward rate pressure (and avoid gas overbuild), if we plan the system to make fuller use of infrastructure we’ve already paid for. 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/o...

He Alone Tracked Leaky Oil Wells in National Parks. He Was Let Go.

Forrest Smith, the only National Park Service engineer cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells, lost his contract, leaving 93 orphaned wells on park lands unmanaged. These leaking wells release methane and toxins, threatening human health and the environment.

The solar-powered compact car driving Tunisia’s electric vehicle revolution | CNN Bako Motors, a Tunisian startup, is creating small electric vehicles powered partly by solar energy.

Look at this cute little thing!

The Hidden Victims of America’s Wildfires

Incredible epsiode of The Daily featuring @hannahdreier.bsky.social and her revelatory reporting on unmasked firefighters and the health consequences they face www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/p...

Opinion | Hurricane Melissa Maxed Out What Scientists Thought Was Possible

Same, same.

“Forty years later, when I look at satellite imagery and other data on hurricanes and extreme weather, I often cannot believe my eyes. Most of these mind-boggling events have a potential link to climate change.” 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Volunteers Step In to Help Understaffed NOAA Track Hurricane Melissa

NOAA’s hurricane research division staff has been cut from 52 in 2020 to 28 in 2025, almost a 50% cut. They’ve resorted to using volunteers to man the critical radar and dropsonde stations on Hurricane Hunter flights. Senseless cuts in an era of climate change making the strongest storms stronger.

Opinion | The Reality of Living With Wolves, Bears and Mountain Lions

California "deployed a 'strike team' to work around the clock chasing wolves away from livestock, shooting at them with bean bags, and erecting new fencing. But the wolves found ways around these deterrence efforts and killed even more cattle." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/o...

Opinion | In 40 Years of Forecasting, I’ve Never Seen a Hurricane Like Melissa

Appreciate @elizabarclay.bsky.social and NYT inviting me to share my perspectives about #Melissa. Between climate change and expanding bullseye, we need to be redoubling our efforts to be able forecast, mitigate and respond to these disastrous weather and water events www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Opinion | In 40 Years of Forecasting, I’ve Never Seen a Hurricane Like Melissa

Thrilled to work with @wxmanms1.bsky.social, whose Substack I've read and admired for some time, on this piece on #Melissa www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Without knowing the details of the impacts of the tidal cycle in this area, it is seriously impossible to imagine a worse case scenario for surge as far as the angle a category 5 hurricane is hitting this bay.

@wxmanms1.bsky.social Hi Alan, I am a NYT Opinion editor. Would love to connect with you about writing a piece for us about Melissa. eliza.barclay@nytimes.com

Hi Alan, I'm a New York Times Opinion editor who emailed you at alang@balancedweather.com. Is that the best email to reach you?

Melissa has rapidly intensified into a category 4 major hurricane according to preliminary NHC estimates:
- from 60 to 120 kt in 24 hours (⬆️ 60 kt)
- from 90 to 110 kt in just 6 hours (⬆️ 20 kt)

This slow-moving storm will not only deliver damaging winds & storm surge but also catastrophic rainfall.

The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to acquire TikTok and his family could soon own both Paramount and Warner Bros.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

The shutdown debacle enters its SNAP era — and it’s about to get ugly Tens of millions of Americans are about to lose their grocery benefits as Washington remains locked in a shutdown fight. This is really bad.

Tens of millions of Americans are about to lose their grocery benefits as Washington remains locked in a shutdown fight. This is really bad.

foodfix.co/the-shutdown...

Excerpt from article: The law runs against one of the hallmarks of modern public health: that a person’s full participation in society depends on their willingness to follow certain rules. (Want to send your child to public school? They’ll need a measles vaccine. Want to work in a retirement community during flu season? You might have to wear a mask.) The new Idaho law flips that on its head. It not only removes the obligation to follow such rules, it makes the rules themselves illegal. The new law sets Idaho apart from even conservative-leaning South Carolina, where two schools recently quarantined more than 150 unvaccinated children after measles arrived. A person can spread measles for four days before symptoms appear. During the South Carolina schools’ quarantine, five students began to show symptoms, but the quarantine kept them from spreading it, the health department said this month. That precaution would now be illegal in Idaho.

A new Idaho law makes it illegal for state and local governments, private businesses, employers, schools and daycares to require anyone to take a vaccine or receive any other “medical intervention.”

➡️ Read the full story: https://propub.li/4oz4JYj

Heat Shock Tips Florida Corals to Extinction Extreme ocean temperatures triggered the demise of coral species key to the health of a reef that protects the state’s cities from climate-driven storms.

Breaking: Extreme ocean heat has eradicated key coral species in Florida from a 350-mile-long reef that protects coastal cities from storms, provides fisheries habitat. Scientists say reef-building elkhorn & staghorn corals are now "functionally extinct." Free link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Image from polarwx.com depicting current current track forecast for Hurricane Melissa for a large number of model ensemble members. There are a wide range of potential tracks depicted for this slow-moving but potentially very powerful and dangerous storm, with most staying in the Caribbean but potentially affecting multiple island landmasses.

Soon-to-be Hurricane #Melissa has potential to be a devastating tropical cyclone in the Caribbean. This will be an extremely slow moving storm, and will tap a very deep pool of highly anomalously warm ocean water (i.e., "hurricane fuel). [1/2] #Hispanola #Jamaica

Fortunate that @climatecentral.org is keeping the billion-dollar climate-related disaster list going, as the first half of 2025 was a doozy. You can read more here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Customers in the South experienced more electricity loss than any other region (77%) in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Its average outage length when the outage is caused by extreme weather is 95.2 hours." www.jdpower.com/business/res...

How China Raced Ahead of the U.S. on Nuclear Power The United States was once the undisputed leader in atomic energy. Now it is trying to catch up.

"Beijing’s ultimate objective is to become a supplier of nuclear power to the world" www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Exclusive: Climate scientists expect attempts to dim the sun by 2100 An exclusive New Scientist survey of leading scientists reveals widespread concern that schemes to tweak Earth’s atmosphere could launch within decades in a risky bid to cool the planet

What do climate scientists really think about solar geoengineering?

For @newscientist.com, @tinymaddie.bsky.social and I surveyed 120 IPCC authors about their attitudes towards solar geoengineering given the world's failure to slash emissions on time. The results were surprising:

Pelosi Says Police May Arrest Federal Agents Who Violate California Law

As the Border Patrol heads to the Bay Area, Nancy Pelosi today said local law enforcement may arrest federal troops who break California law.

The idea comes from San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins who says she will prosecute them.

W/ @kellen.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/u...

Opinion | They’re Small, Yellow and Round — and Show How Trump’s Tariffs Don’t Work

“We pay farmers to farm soybeans, pay them more to convert some of those soybeans into inefficient fuels, pay them even more when they can’t sell soybeans because of our trade war, then pay extra to bail out one of the countries replacing them in the marketplace.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/o...

Opinion | Zohran Mamdani and How to Be a ‘Good’ Muslim in America When I look at the mayor’s race in New York, here’s what I see.

“After two years of war in Gaza and nearly nine months into Donald Trump’s second presidency,” Meher Ahmad writes, the treatment of Zohran Mamdani ”is like a black light, revealing the flecks of anti-Muslim bigotry that still dapple American institutions.”

Opinion | Relax, America, There Is Life After Nonstick Pans

Love this article. So many everyday uses of PFAS are non-essential, including cookware.
"A good pan is like a trusted friend: It improves with time, instead of slowly poisoning you."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Endorse