A low-gravity Happy New Year
As you might have (almost certainly didn’t) noticed, it’s been quiet around the Gravity Is Gone hallways the last year-plus. Just to catch you up, that’s because after spending the bulk of my career as a freelancer, I have now been on staff as a climate reporter for DC-based media startup Grid, starting back in September 2021. The site launched almost one year ago now, and well, I think we’re doing okay!
I spent the year covering climate change in a much more dedicated and directed fashion than I ever was able to before. I wrote about the slow death of coal, over-hyped nuclear fusion power, wildfire-fighting drones, the solar geoengineering trolley problem, what climate change is doing to warm-weather sports (like, all of them), some wins like the Kigali Amendment and California’s coming ban on gas-powered cars, the pending lithium boom and where it will come from, a really dumb AI-powered science thing, and lots more. Oh, and disasters — lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of disasters.
I traveled too: I went to New Hampshire to write about outdoor hockey, to Houston to see scientists figuring out pollution’s role in thunderstorm strength, and to Florida to see a deep-red area’s climate adaptation plans. (That last one is probably my favorite story of the year; I had to delay because of Hurricane Ian, which definitely changed the story.) And then in November I went a bit farther, to Egypt, to cover the U.N. climate talks — all my dispatches and stories are here.
Anyway, it was an interesting year, and definitely a change of speed. I just wanted to say hello — I likely won’t bother you much from this newsletter in 2023, but I may find something here or there that is worth jumping in on. Thanks and happy new year!