Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The United States Increased In 2025, Dropped In China,

It looks like this guy will ensure coal and oil use 
continue to spew more and more greenhouse gas
emissions into the atmosphere, but at least it looks
like China and India are trying 
to reign in fossil fuel use. 

 Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States went up by 2.4% in 2025, reversing two previous years of decreases, according to a BBC report.  

Part of the reason for the increase was just bad weather luck. January, 2025 was colder than most other recent winters. Homes burned more gas for heating than usual, while coal use rose by 13% to meet rising electricity demands. 

Data centers driven by soaring use of AI, and a raging cryptocurrency fad or industry (depending upon how how you look at it) were a big driver of the greenhouse gas emissions. 

We rightly blame Donald Trump for a bunch of new or looming environmental ills because of his militantly pro oil and coal stance. 

However the damage from Trump was probably minimal in 2025.  It'll almost surely increase starting this year. 

At least China and India seem to be counteracting the U.S. and preventing an enormous boom in emissions. Electricity generated by coal declined in India by 3%. China's coal generation was down 1.6 percent from the previous year. It's the first time since 1973 that coal-based electricity generation fell simultaneously in both countries.

 "The fall in 2025 is a sign of things to come, as both countries added a record amount of new clean-power generation last year, which was more than sufficient to meet rising demand," according to Carbon Brief, which did the analysis on India and China's greenhouse gas emissions. 

It's possible both countries are reaching a historic peak in coal use. Climatologists and other scientists are hoping from now, coal use in China and India continue to decline. 

China managed to reduce coal consumption despite electricity demand growing by 5 percent over the year. India's reduction in coal use might have been partly weather related. The extreme heat waves India has experienced in recent years were not quite as severe in 2025. 

Bottom line: We have a mixed future in further diminishing the global dependence on coal and oil. But the United States, once in a leader in the battle against climate change, has turned into the world's worst enemy. 

That seems to be a trend lately.  

Horrible Northern Hemisphere Summer Already Starting? India Heat, American, Siberian Fires

Record heat has engulfed India and Pakistan for weeks,
and it's only getting worse More than a billion people
will experience life-threatening heat this week.

 We're racing toward summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and if recent weather news is any indication, it's going to be another destructive, record breaking one in many parts of the world's northern half. 

With climate change, summers have gotten hotter and stormier, with terrible results. Witness the big wildfires in recent years,  the record smashing heat wave in the Pacific Northwest last year, all those hurricanes, and flooding in the southern and eastern United States last summer, you get the picture.

Summers have always brought heat waves, droughts, fires, flash floods and hurricanes.  But these issues are getting worse and more long lasting as the world warms.  

We don't even reach the month of May until Sunday, and summer type disasters are already beginning to unfold. The worst of them so far is in India and Pakistan.

INDIA HEAT

In most of India, the most intense heat waves each year usually strike in May, before monsoon rains cool things off marginally later in the summer. 

This spring, though has been off the charts in this densely populated nation. And now the heat is intensifying.'

As CNN reports more than a billion people - 10 percent of the world's population - are subject to life threatening heat over the course of the next several days. 

Once you get into May, daytime temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees in New Delhi. But the forecast this week has that giant city approaching 120 degrees.

Overnight lows will only be in the mid-80s, which makes this heat wave especially dangerous. There's no chance for overheated people without air conditioning to cool down. The longer a heat wave grinds on, the more dangerous it becomes.

Extreme heat has already been going on for weeks, so people are already worn down.  Temperatures starting hitting record levels of over 100 degrees in March and consistently continued at record levels through April.

If by chance your heartless enough to not care if people in South Asia die in this heat wave this probably affects you, too.

India had hoped to boost grain exports to help make up for shortfalls in world grain supply due to the war in Ukraine. (India's motives to do this were aimed to both humanitarian and an economic windfall for the nation).

The long heat wave has stunted wheat crops in India, thereby tightening the world's supply and probably further boosting the cost of Cheerios at your favorite local supermarket. Not to mention a huge portion of the rest of your groceries. 

Don't like inflation? India's heat wave could just make it a bit worse than it already is. 

WILDFIRES

I've been blabbing on about wildfires pretty much all of 2022 so far in this here blog thingy. 

That shouldn't have happened. There should not have been many wildfires to talk about during the first four months of the year. Wild and forest fire season used to be predominantly a summer and fall thing, now it's year round. 

Almost a daily occurrence lately. High to extreme
fire danger in the Southwest today 

As a side note, wildfire and brush fire season in the Northeast is an exception to the summer rule. These fires peak up in the Northeast in the spring, before everything greens up. Brush fires have been reported this week in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. 

Most of Vermont has a high fire danger today, due to very low humidity, sunshine and stiff breezes.

But, like I said, that's an aside. 

Today, for seemingly the umpteenth time this year, parts of the nation today are facing once-relatively rare extreme fire risk. This time, the worst fire risk is centered in parts of Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. 

With drought conditions and little prospect for rain in much of the west, wildfires have gained a stronghold weeks or even months before what was once considered normal. New large fires broke out in recent days in New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. 

The yearly spate of wildfires in Siberia have already started, also earlier than normal.  With the Russian military distracted by their war crimes and failures in Ukraine, officials fear there won't be the personnel to deal with those Siberian fires as they inevitably intensify over the summer, notes the Washington Post. 

The Siberian fires are intense enough to bring hazy skies from the smoke to parts of the western United States this week. 

CALIFORNIA WATER EMERGENCY 

Also this week, about 6 million Southern Californians were ordered to reduce water usage and limit outdoor watering to once a week due to the drought there. 

The winter rainy season is sputtering to a close out there, with not much rain having fallen. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said in a statement that "supplies have been so drastically reduced over the past three years that in some parts of the region, we simply don't have enough water to meet normal demands this year."

All the problems I've cited above are just the opening salvo in what promises to be a long, hot, destructive summer. Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am, but we're already not off to a great start.

 

Flash Flood Season: Huge, Abrupt Torrents Seem To Be Popping Up Everywhere

Severe flash flooding in India this week  Seems like these
floods are popping up incredibly frequently this week.

 Despite widespread drought in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere, as always there are spots that are too wet. 

Droughts seem worse these days with climate change, but so do the rain storms. 

Flash floods are popping up seemingly everywhere.  Monday was just one very busy example.

Just in the past day or so, some real troublesome inundations have occurred in India, in England, especially around London, in Japan, and in the northeastern United States.

It's even possible a few spots in Vermont could get into the flash flood act later this week. More on that in a moment.

First, as they say, the news:

INDIA

Monsoon rains triggered huge flash floods in hilly parts of India this week. Social media is full of videos depicting cars being swept away as water, mud and rocks roar through towns and villages.  The videos show houses and buildings collapsing or 

At least one person has died in the flooding and roughly a dozen are missing.  Lightning accompanying the storms was less destructive, but far more deadly.  Reports indicate around 40 Indians have died this week from being struck by lightning.

ENGLAND

Torrential rains swept through parts of southeastern England, including London on Monday, dumping two inches of rain in very short periods of time. Streets quickly went under water.

London Fire Brigade fielded more than 1,000 flood-related calls, the BBC reported. 

Many homes were badly damaged by flooding, including that owned by Brian May, guitarist for the group Queen.

At least 120 people were put up in hotels after flooding made homes uninhabitable.  Streets were blocked by floodwaters, and trains stopped running due to water on the tracks. Water poured down stairs into parts of the London Tube. Yeah, quite a mess.

JAPAN

Japan is already reeling from a dramatic flash flood and mud slide last week that killed 9 people and left 20 missing at last check.  New flooding hit Monday.  This time it wasn't quite as bad, but the media center for the upcoming Summer Olympics flooded.

UNITED STATES:

A flash flood emergency was declared in northeastern Philadelphia and towns to the north of there after torrential thunderstorms stalled over the region. Philadelphia had 2.42 inches of rain in just an hour. Parts of Bucks County, Pennsylvania received six to 10 inches of rain in just three or four hours.

No surprise, then, that lots of people had to be rescued from flooded cars and buildings. Probably hundreds of homes suffered damage.  

Water rescues in Pennsylvania Monday after six to 10 inches of
rain fell in under four hours in some areas.

This is just the continuation of a week of flash flooding in various parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. The first half of July has been super wet there, so no surprise with the flooding. 

New York City has already had 8.5 inches of rain so far this month, which is nearly seven inches more than normal.

Today, flash flooding is a good possibility again, especially in western New York,  and in Arizona and southern Utah, where monsoon moisture is streaming in. 

VERMONT RAIN

Here in Vermont, we'll have to watch slow moving showers and thunderstorms, especially later in the week.

We have had trouble getting rain to fall in far northern Vermont, which remains on the dry side. A band of rain went through that part of the state this morning, so that helped a little.  

The further south you go in Vermont, the wetter this month  has been. Soil moisture has actually gone above normal down there, so torrential downpours, especially if they last a long time or hit the same spots over and over again, could cause local flash flooding during the rest of this week. 

There's a chance of that tomorrow, as a wave of showers and storms is expected to move through. A few storms could have torrential rain in a few spots. 

A possibly bigger risk of torrential downpours exists Friday and possibly Saturday, we'll have to wait and see on that. 

Immense India Flash Flood Might Have Been Part Of Worrying Climate Change Hazard

Rescue workers in India after last weekend's huge flash
flood, initially blamed on a glacial lake failure. 

An extreme flash flood swept through part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand over last weekend, killing as many as 125 people and causing a swath of destruction through a mountain valley. 

According to the BBC, a wall of water and rocks poured down the valley, bursting through a dam and sweeping away pretty much everything in its path. 

News reports, at least the ones I've seen so far, don't make it clear why such a huge flood hit that part of India. However, initial speculation pointed toward something called a glacial lake outburst flood, and it's one more in a long list of dangerous effects that could easily be brought on by climate change. 

It turns out the disaster might have had another source: A huge chunk of snow fell off a mountain near Raini village, perhaps temporarily blocking a river, according to the Indian Express. 

Very heavy snow fell in the mountains on February 5 and 6, then began melting on February 7. The melting probably caused the snow to slide off the sides of the mountain, picking up water and soil along the way.

This mess, again, possibly briefly collecting behind a brief debris dam, then roared down the valley. The avalanche could have released 3 to 4 cubic meters of water into the rivers affected by the flash flood, says the Indian Express. 

If these scientists and observers are correct, this wasn't a glacial lake outburst.  However the phenomenon is still a huge threat that could cause as big or worse disasters. 

Climate change is making mountain glaciers retreat in most of the world, including the Himalayas. As the glaciers melt, the resulting water sometimes collects in a lake a little below the retreating glacier.  These lakes and potential floods also occur in the European Alps, Central Asia, South America, Iceland and other places. 

The material holding back the water is often weak and unstable.  The dam might consist of a pile of rocks and soil left behind a moving glacier. Or the dam might be a melting wall of ice that finally gives way. 

The water will finally break through the dam, maybe because of heavy rain or the splash from a chunk of ice falling off the glacier.  The hole in the dam keeps widening, so soon a torrent of water roars down a valley toward places where people are.  The wall of water picks up rocks and other material from the destroyed dam or other areas downstream, so the flash flood is full of battering rams that destroy everything in their path. 

These can happen repeatedly in the same area.  The dam that was breached by the glacial lake can re-form, then collapse again.  

There has not been an apparent, real increase in these floods due to climate change, but scientists do worry this will become an increasing problem in areas with mountain glaciers as the world continues to warm. 

Ominously, glacial lakes are growing and becoming more numerous in the Himalayas as glaciers melt, so you can see how this is going to be issue to be reckoned with in future generations.