Luis E. Ortiz

As one of the lead authors of this assessment, I am so excited to share with others in just a few weeks!

⬇️⬇️⬇️

When Classrooms Get Hot: What We Learned Exploring the Hidden Link Between the Environment, Health, and Learning As both a physician and a policymaker, I’ve spent much of my life asking one central question: How can we help every child reach their full potential?

Hot classrooms impede learning, as does elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Clean energy—not fossil fuels—is the path to a better, smarter, healthier future for our children.

@bfrist.bsky.social
@docsforclimate.bsky.social
@gchalliance.bsky.social

Having lived in Serbia during Fulbright, I am excited to announce opportunity. Interested in learning about the Balkans, drink rakiya, visit Sarajevo, Tito's Bunker or a 16th-century Ottoman-era bridge? Share with networks that may be interested such topics. #professionaldevelopment #geography

Measuring flood underinsurance in the USA - Nature Climate Change Homeowners could benefit from flood insurance to offset the negative impacts of climate-induced natural disasters. However, with detailed micro-level data, researchers find substantial protection gaps...

At least 70% of US households are uninsured or underinsured against floods, yet climate change is rapidly increasing the number and severity of flooding in the US. This doesn’t end well for most people—unless we do something about it now.

@lortizuriarte.bsky.social @virginiaclimate.bsky.social

🟡 Semafor Flagship: Turning up the heat | Semafor European leaders call Trump ahead of his meeting with Putin, Gaza’s hospitals face a medical supply crisis, and Kodak may have to shut down after 133 years.

Who loses when America loses top scientists? America does.

Reduced funding for scientific research is an unforced error of epic proportions. Tell your members of Congress to stop the madness.

www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

Virginia loses $156 million for expanding solar power after EPA grant cut The Solar for All program would have helped about 15,000 households get rooftop panels or buy into shared solar projects.

Who loses when the POTUS wages war on clean energy? Everyone (except fossil fuel & utility company CEOs + their lobbyists).

The latest casualty in Virginia? Solar for All, plus the clean air & water, better health, and local jobs it would have produced.

@virginiaclinicians.bsky.social

There's a new 2025 peak demand record in ERCOT: 82,566 megawatts at 4:55 today. Solar provided 30% of the power at that time and wind about 16%; wholesale power was just $22/MWh. No conservation alerts. No energy emergencies. Just abundant, affordable power. #txlege #txenergy

If all grants will need to be approved by appointees, I wonder how any funding will get out the door! Its a massive bottleneck even without the political interference!

Heat is deadly. Ensuring people have air conditioning is more important now than ever

It's the last weekend before the #AGU25 #abstract submission #deadline, which means it is finally time to submit your abstracts and crash their website.

If you are working on #urban-scale processes, consider submitting to our sessions (links below).

1. lnkd.in/gXXtKvtb

2. lnkd.in/gWuN2Yw6

RealClimate: National Climate Assessment links RealClimate: For some reason, it has become hard to locate the various National Climate Assessments (NCAs) that have been produced by the USGCRP over the decades (and it's pretty hard to find the USGR...

If you are having trouble finding National Climate Assessment reports, they are here.

www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...

Global emissions from heating are about 4x those from cooling.

Air conditioning is an important and lifesaving adaptation to climate change.

Decarbonize the grid.

"Rising food prices are the second-largest effect of climate change that people see in their day-to-day lives, only exceeded by extreme heat"

Link to study since, you know, WSJ apparently didn't feel the need to include: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Mitigation behaviors of homeowners and renters in the wildland urban interface Residential development within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has greatly expanded in the United States since the 1990s, amplifying wildfire risk …

New @floodlab.bsky.social paper on wildfire risk mitigation - Mitigation behaviors of homeowners and renters in the wildland urban interface

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

550p: Flash flood warnings now stretch from near Haymarket to Bethesda as cluster of storms is is unloading. A few spots with 3” of rain. Don’t drive in this if you can avoid….should slowly fade next 30-45 mins. #cwgalert

#climaterisk

Everyone is acting like US scientists will just go get science jobs elsewhere and sure some will but there are not anywhere close to enough science jobs elsewhere.

The end result of this will be much, much, much less science, not science happening in different places.

As Oregon’s wildfire risk map dies, Washington creates its own A recent Klickitat County meeting marks the early stages of a process to gauge the risks and hazards wildfire poses in Washington and to guide new codes for fire-resistant construction.

Tip of the cap to any state proactively working to identify natural hazard risk areas. This is not a trivial exercise, nor one that ends without A LOT of feedback.

Oregon tried creating their own wildfire maps, and then took a step back.

Washington now giving it a try.

www.opb.org/article/2025...

YouTube video by Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe What is geoengineering anyways?

Most climate denial falls into one of five general categories:

It’s not real
It’s not us
It’s not bad
We can’t fix it
It’s too late

Conspiracy theories about secret experiments have been around for decades and they fall solidly into category 2 above: “it’s not us, it’s THEM”

For more, watch:

Many states - Texas, Utah - actively participate in weather modification (cloud seeding) to help address water supply issues. The process disperses silver iodide, a substance that encourages ice crystal formation in clouds, increasing precipitation.
Imagine H2O issues without it! Education 101

A map of precipitation totals from Tropical Storm Chantal in North Carolina

With more than 10 inches of rain in spots, Tropical Storm Chantal produced flooding and damage across central NC over the past 24 hours. #ncwx

Our latest blog post reviews the rainfall totals, river crests, and other initial impacts from Chantal.
📰: climate.ncsu.edu/blog/2025/07...

Why the Texas floods were so severe Flooding rains in and around Kerr County had brought a widespread 10 to 15 total inches by Friday morning. Four months of rainfall came down in four hours.

Tragedy in Texas hill country, where 4 months’ worth of rain in just four hours caused Guadalupe River levels to spike 30 feet in just an hour and a half - in the middle of the night.

Two dozen are dead in the resulting floods and another 20 young campers still missing.

apnews.com/article/texa...

If the #NOAA budget passes Congress, it guts NOAA labs that:

– Predicted Idalia’s rapid intensification
– Tracked East Palestine’s toxic plume
– Forecast NYC’s 2023 smoke emergency
– Linked the 2021 PNW heat dome to climate change
– Run the Mauna Loa CO₂ record

open.substack.com/pub/chrisglo...

How Can Communication about Plant-based Foods Support Sustainable Food System Transformation? Nine Recommendations for Government, Industry and Citizens - Current Environmental Health Reports Current Environmental Health Reports - Immediate and widespread action is necessary to minimise the harmful consequences of the current food system. Mainstream omnivore diets contribute...

"Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much" is great dietary guidance for people (and the planet), expressed simply & clearly. This new article outlines what governments, food companies, and the rest of us can do to help people eat this way.
@gchalliance.bsky.social
@docsforclimate.bsky.social

Keeping an eye on the Producer Price Index (PPI) for US asphalt shingle / roof coating and other construction material. Such indices remain at or near historical highs.

This is notable for replacement or insurance costs as we head toward peak hurricane season and remain in peak thunderstorm season.

Extreme heat + humidity can be deadly. Protect yourself and your family by being heat smart. Protect our climate--and all life on the planet--by telling your elected representatives to do everything possible to support the clean energy revolution.

Extreme heat threatens railroads with connectivity and ridership loss in the United States - npj Urban Sustainability npj Urban Sustainability - Extreme heat threatens railroads with connectivity and ridership loss in the United States

Our analysis highlights where these disruptions could happen, and where they have the biggest impact on ridership. Learn more here: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Our work accounts for not only the hazard side of things, but also the impact on ridership and connectivity of the network due to slow-downs and service disruption. Most rail in the US is hardened against heat, but as temps rise, we will see more service disruptions on the hottest days of the year.

Extreme heat threatens railroads with connectivity and ridership loss in the United States - npj Urban Sustainability npj Urban Sustainability - Extreme heat threatens railroads with connectivity and ridership loss in the United States

Our new article (www.nature.com/articles/s42...), a @georgemasonu.bsky.social collab led by PhD student @fatemehj.bsky.social, uncovers potential network-wide impacts of extreme heat on passenger rail in the US.