Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report, Geeky Science Friday.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Will the UN’s Record Greenhouse Gas Warning Shame Trump Into Showing Up?
Two weeks before COP31 opens in Turkey, the World Meteorological Organization dropped its annual report. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all hit record highs in 2025. Carbon dioxide reached 426.8 parts per million, up from 377.5 when the bulletin began in 2004. The past 11 years were the hottest ever recorded. Deputy chief Ko Barrett put it plainly, “Another year, another new record.” She warned we’re supercharging the ocean and atmosphere, and storms are intensifying faster than history prepared us for. And the biggest historical polluter on Earth? Donald Trump quit the Paris Agreement again and won’t even send a delegation. Climate scientist Michael Mann says the fossil fuel industry owns our government. Tuesday’s midterms are our first chance to take it back.
Did the Sun Just Beat the Atom? Solar Overtakes Nuclear Worldwide
Solar now out-generates every nuclear plant on the planet. Think tank Ember says solar edged past nuclear in 2025, and over the 12 months through September it produced 13% more electricity. A decade ago solar was 1% of world power. Nuclear output has barely moved since 2000 while solar grew 2,700-fold. Why? A panel now costs well under $100 and keeps generating for 30 or 40 years. Ember’s Dave Jones calls it “offensively cheap.” Pakistan went from 2% solar to 24% in seven years, mostly paid out of people’s own pockets. Even here, despite Trump’s tariffs, America has enough solar to power a third of its households, and it’s booming fastest in states Trump won. The fossil fuel billionaires can buy politicians. They can’t repeal arithmetic.
Trump Guts NOAA Just as a Super El Niño Takes Aim at America
The Guardian reports Trump’s cuts have stripped roughly 20% of NOAA’s staff since January 2025. More than 3,000 people gone, just 525 hired to replace them. The National Weather Service has hundreds of vacancies across its 122 forecast offices and 10% fewer meteorologists heading into winter. Trump shaved $6 billion off weather satellites and wants another 26% cut next year. All this as a super El Niño threatens coast-to-coast storms and a foot of sea level rise in California. Former NOAA scientist Tom Di Liberto said, “The system has not really been tested since all the cuts happened.” Obama’s NOAA deputy Monica Medina warned that if this is the test, we’re going to flunk. When government stops protecting you, you learn who it was built to serve.
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Are You Ready? Meteorologists Warn This Winter Could Be One of the Stormiest Ever
The Washington Post surveyed forecasters nationwide, and they agree this El Niño winter could be one for the record books. Starting in November, a supercharged subtropical jet stream will fuel storms from California to Florida and up the East Coast. Florida meteorologists are bracing for tornado outbreaks like 1998. The East Coast should see twice as many strong storms, with nor’easters hammering beaches from New England to the Carolinas, though milder with less snow. California faces January through March storms that could dump three to four years of rain in one season, with ocean temperatures 10 degrees above normal feeding atmospheric rivers. Climate scientist Daniel Swain called those sea temperatures “record-shattering” for the state. And remember, this is the winter Trump chose to gut the weather service.
Cheap Water Is Over. Can a Phoenix Suburb Survive a $500 Monthly Bill?
Ron Rios loves the backyard pool that gets him through Arizona’s triple-digit summers. So the 52-year-old turf company owner was furious to learn his Queen Creek water bill could climb from $130 a month to more than $500. Town leaders say they’ve no choice. The Colorado River is shrinking, federal cuts of up to 40% loom for Arizona, Nevada and California starting in 2027, and the suburb is spending $730 million to pipe in Harquahala Basin groundwater from 100 miles away for a 100-year supply. Queen Creek bought in at $15,000 an acre-foot. Latecomers now pay double. The Post summed it up in four words, “Cheap water is over.” That’s the climate crisis landing on a kitchen table. Nobody calls it a hoax when the bill comes due.
And that’s the way it is today, Friday, October 30, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
