US Energy Cost Explorer
US Energy Cost Explorer is a classic website that takes open, publicly available data on energy costs and makes it usable, useful & interesting – https://energy-maps.com/
Environment
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TIL about Prairie Remnants
This infographic from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota explains how much of the Earth’s prairie ecosystem we’ve lost over the past couple of centuries. More than 70% of America’s Great Plains have been lost to development, and what is left is all in pockets.
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TIL about the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s land classification system
What I did not know is that in 2008, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – a UN-like body* – decided to create a formal system that countries can use to systematically conserve lands based on management objectives. It’s very similar to the US system, except that many US designations (like National Monuments) can span multiple IUCN categories depending on how they’re managed. It’s used by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
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Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Ministry for the Future is one of the better science fiction novels about climate change that I’ve read. It’s fast-paced, well-written, and grounded in realistic scenarios. The setting works. The characters work. The whole thing works.
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