Harry Stevens
Climate and graphics at @nytimes.com
Email me and check my work: harry.stevens@nytimes.com
- The EPA said it will stop updating a database that companies use to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from their supply chains. In July, EPA suspended the database's lead scientist because he signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/c...
- A trick for fitting world maps on phones: Stack two azimuthal equal-area projections, clipped at 90° longitude, each one rotated 180° from the other. The bottom map covers the top's Antarctica, which reduces the total height and looks nice. As seen in www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/c...
- A cylindrical or pseudocylindrical (in this case Patterson's Natural Earth) projection will start looking real scrunchy at around 600 pixels, but the stacked Lamberts work great down to 300 pixels — as narrow as you'll ever need.
- I first saw this last year in a map by @bananafish.bsky.social. Not sure if he invented it or saw it somewhere else. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
- The azimuthal equal-area projects the sphere onto a disk and preserves area across the projection. You can display the whole planet, but latitudes far from the center get very distorted. The clipped two-hemisphere approach avoids the distortion and fits nicely on a phone.
- Jury Finds Greenpeace Liable for Hundreds of Millions in Damages A lawsuit by pipeline giant Energy Transfer claimed Greenpeace had played a major, costly role in protests nearly a decade ago. Greenpeace has said a loss could put it out of business. by Karen Zraick www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/c...
- 🦋 In 20 years, the contiguous U.S. lost 22 percent of its butterflies, according to a groundbreaking new study published today. We got the data, and I made a tool that lets you find out what's happening with butterfly species in your town. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/... 1/3
- 🦋 This is the first study to combine butterfly observations from thousands of surveys across the country to create a complete picture of U.S. butterfly trends. Of 342 species, 245 suffered declines of at least 10 percent. Read the story here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/... 2/3
- 🦋 The study didn't investigate causes, but habitat disruption and pesticides likely contributed to declines. Climate change may have played a role: species saw larger drops in the south of their ranges, suggesting northward migration w/ temp. increase. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... 3/3
- Nikola, the EV startup that once enjoyed a surging stock price, has filed for bankruptcy after struggling to turn its plans for electric and hydrogen trucks into a viable business. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/b...
- The Energy Department has begun laying off staff — around 1,000 workers — as part of Trump's purge of the federal workforce www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/u...
- The State Department plans to spend $400 million on armored Cybertrucks from Elon Musk’s Tesla www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...
- Update: The State Dept.'s plan to spend $400 million on armored Teslas, which was made after Trump was inaugurated but before he took office, has been suspended www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/u...
- NEW: Trump is freezing money for clean energy — batteries, EVs, renewables, heat pumps, and more. Nearly 80% of manufacturing investments spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act have flowed to Republican congressional districts. w/ Lisa Friedman & @bradplumer.bsky.social 👇 Gift link in reply
- Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Red States Have the Most to Lose. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/c...
- At this rate we'll bend the aerosol cooling curve back up to 0 long before we bend the greenhouse warming curve back down.
- Startup company Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to build its first fusion power plant in Richmond, VA, to begin generating carbon-free electricity in the early 2030s. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/c...
- “You have to make sure your numbers are correct before you scare the pants off people.”
- Hey, so it turns out that paper on black plastic was a bit blown out of proportion by a simple math error. nationalpost.com/news/canada/...
- Do you live in a walkable neighborhood or suburban sprawl? Explore more than 200 metro areas and see how your neighborhood ranks in today's Climate Lab column. Gift link: wapo.st/41lOtkO
- Most Americans say they prefer a bigger house in the suburbs vs. a smaller place in a walkable neighborhood. Yet sprawl is objectively bad in many ways, and there is an undersupply of walkable neighborhoods relative to demand. More analysis and walkability data in Climate Lab: wapo.st/41lOtkO
- Many U.S. cities were built for cars. Zoomed out, car-oriented cities all look about the same on the map: dense downtowns surrounded by sprawl with arterial highways dissecting areas where walkable neighborhoods might otherwise be built. Gift link for more: wapo.st/41lOtkO
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View full threadProgramming note: This will be my last Climate Lab column for The Washington Post. It's been a lot of fun. Now it's time for a new challenge. I'll share more about that in the coming weeks. wapo.st/41lOtkO
- ❄️ The U.S. is getting less snowy, according to 60 years of meteorological records. In today's Climate Lab column, see this winter’s forecast in your county and find out if it gets less snow now than it used to. Gift link: wapo.st/3CjsMaD
- I built this tool that lets you look up your county to see this winter's snow forecast along with the snow trend of the past six decades. Check it out with this gift link: wapo.st/3CjsMaD
- Most of the country has seen higher average winter temperatures as humans have altered the Earth's atmosphere. “The laws of thermodynamics are tough to beat,” @climatologist49.bsky.social said. “As you warm temperatures up, you’re just going to get less snow.” wapo.st/3CjsMaD
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