Currently in Portland — July 14, 2023: Get ready for a hot weekend!

The weather, currently.

It’s getting hot, y’all. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday should all hit temps in the 90s, and it’s even possible we’ll break 100 on Saturday in some areas around Portland. It’s going to be so hot, in fact, that there’s a heat advisory for Saturday. And it’s not just hot, it’s also dry and windy, which means we’ve also got a fire watch in effect starting on Friday. So if you’re camping, don’t start any fires - and in general, just be careful out there. Let’s all have a safe weekend of wearing sunscreen, drinking plenty of water, and not doing anything that could cause a spark!

— Stella Harris

What you can do, currently.

The climate emergency doesn’t take the summer off. In fact — as we’ve been reporting — we’re heading into an El Niño that could challenge historical records and is already supercharging weather and climate impacts around the world.

When people understand the weather they are experiencing is caused by climate change it creates a more compelling call to action to do something about it.

If these emails mean something important to you — and more importantly, if the idea of being part of a community that’s building a weather service for the climate emergency means something important to you — please chip in just $5 a month to continue making this service possible.

Thank you!!

What you need to know, currently.

In what is surely a major milestone in the global fight against climate change, there’s fresh evidence that the rapidly plunging cost of renewable energy may have permanently put a stop to global growth of burning fossil fuels to create electricity.

A new report out Thursday by the Rocky Mountain Institute with support of the Bezos Earth Fund finds that wind and solar have gotten so cheap in almost every corner of the planet that it’s no longer economically viable to keep supplying coal, fossil gas, or oil to power plants. And that might be just the spark that’s needed to accelerate a surge of new renewable energy investment around the world.

The cost of wind and solar have plunged by 60-80% over the past 10 years, and their share of global electricity production will triple to more than one-third in the next 6 years.

All this seems like a dream for those of us who have been working on climate for decades. It’s worth the biggest celebrations, and there’s still a lot of work to do. Fossil fuel use for electricity accounts for only about one-quarter of global carbon emissions. The harder-to-reduce sectors like transportation, agriculture, and industry are shifting away from fossil fuels at a slower pace — but like electricity, still accelerating toward a better future.

That acceleration is everything, according to Singapore-based clean energy expert Assaad Razzouk. His thread summarizing the report and its implications is worth reading. His bottom line: “Nothing is more important than running faster: Speed is justice.”

—Eric Holthaus