Sustainability Math A Quantitative Literacy and Mathematics Resource for Instructors

In my post over at Briefed by Data, CO2 emissions are an inequality problem, I report on an IEA article about how much those with higher incomes emit more energy-related CO2.

To put it another way, if the top 10% decreased their CO2 emissions to the level of the next 10%, they would save 30t per person, which is just 2t less than what the lowest 50% currently emits. What should we expect the rest of the population to do if the wealthy aren’t going to make significant lifestyle changes?

Read other articles like this at Briefed by Data.

In my recent Briefed by Data post How rising mean temperatures affect maximums I use a simple simulation to help understand climate change and the impact increasing mean temperatures have on maximum temperatures. For example,

We expect a roughly 50% increase in summers with temperatures over 100°F over the first 50 years of the rising temperature scenario, followed by a 5-fold rise during the next 50 years. One important thing to note is that, compared to no change, the slow rise in temperature won’t be felt as much in the first 50 years. In the scenario of rising temperatures, even the difference between the first 50 and the second 50 is tripled. In essence, nothing is noticeably bad until it is.

Read more over at Substack and consider subscribing to my newsletter Briefed by Data.

I did a full summary of July on Briefed by Data and here is a  highlights from the post.

First, Figure 1 represents the July historical temperature anomaly. It was certainly a record-setting year for July, on the order of 0.75 °F above the previous record anomaly. It should be noted that ENSO status will not be formally determined for some months. How does this compare to all months?

July’s anomaly was not even a top 10 for a month (see Figure 2 in the post) but it was a warmest month on record, but this is an artifact of July being the warmest month of the year in general. Read more here which includes links to the data.

We don’t use oil for just gasoline and one of the key uses of a barrel of oil is the binding agent for asphalt, which electric cars also desire. From my We Can’t Just Stop Oil post on Briefed by Data:

Oil is refined by heating it, and different types of oil are boiled off at different temperatures. Figure 3 displays this. The issue is that one of the first products to boil out is gasoline, and the last is asphalt. You can’t just take a barrel of crude oil and say, “I just want asphalt.” Consider it like this: if you want any of the items in Figure 3’s list, you also get everything above them.

There are some bio substitutes such as vegetable oil, but the bottom line is getting rid of oil isn’t that simple. Read more at We Can’t Just Stop Oil and consider subscribing to Briefed by Data.

Grip strength is one of the factors measured in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Grip strength, which is formally tested by gripping a dynamometer, is also a proxy measurement for upper body and total strength. The median summed (right plus left hand) female grip strength is 64% of the median summed male grip strength. Measures of central tendency do not tell the whole story, and we can see from the distribution that relatively few females exceed the male median. In fact, just 17 of the 2,515 females, or less than 0.1%, have a summed grip strength greater than the median summed grip strength of males. Read more about this on my substack Briefed by Data,
Female vs Male Grip Strength, where I include links to the data and two other graphs.

See Briefed by Data for other articles.

From NOAA’s June 2023 Global Climate Report:

June 2023 set a record as the warmest June for the globe in NOAA’s 174-year record. The June global surface temperature was 1.05°C (1.89°F) above the 20th-century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F). This marked the first time a June temperature exceeded 1°C above the long-term average.

By definition we don’t officially know if June 2023 was an El Niño month (hence the black bar in the graph) but it was emerging and likely will be one. More about June 2023 on my Briefed by Data site.

We have had record-breaking 2m world surface temperatures for most of July. At least some of this is due to El Niño (see Three Trends of Climate Change) emerging this summer. We might have a stretch this summer with temperatures above 17°C (62.6°F).

If you like data, graphs, and being informed then please check out Briefed by Data and sign up for the newsletter.  Really, just a couple of mouse clicks away.

This post is really an ad for my new calculus textbook. I just received my author copies and thought I should promote it. For those that follow sustainabilitymath or use any of the calculus projects know that I’ve integrated many of them into the book. I also integrate R from the beginning so that students can tackle more real world problems and learn a little coding.

If you like data based articles check out my other site on substack: Briefed  by Data

This is from my Briefed by Data post Seasonal Solar Electricity Generation. It looks like the difference between the maximum month and minimum months of solar electricity generation are growing. In fact, it is fairly consistent in terms of a percentage drop.

In Figure 2, we can see that the annual seasonal drop has averaged 56%, but it’s possible that this number is inflated because 2011 and 2012 had higher values. Since 2018, the drop has been extremely stable, staying between 50% and 55% of the previous level.

There is another graph and a reference to the data. Click the article link or visit the main page of Briefed  by Data. Also on twitter @BriefedByData.

The map says it all from the eia article Two-thirds of North America is at risk of energy shortfalls in high summer heat, NERC says (6/26/2023).

If temperatures spike this summer, parts of the United States could face electricity supply shortages as demand for cooling increases, according to analysis by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The latest summer reliability report from NERC warns that two-thirds of North America is at risk of energy shortfalls this summer during periods of extremely high electricity demand.

There is a link to the data on the page.

If you like data based articles check out my other site on substack: Briefed  by Data