We have had four separate articles in our series “How wealthy New Englanders fight #ClimateChange,” noting how our blue state brethren, the ones who gave so many of their votes to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Emhoff in the 2020 election. We take the assumption that those who voted for the Democrats agreed at least in part with the Democrats’ plans on fighting global warming climate change, and looked at how New Englanders with money, at least enough money to afford a major remodeling job featured on the long running PBS series This Old House.
In season 46, the program selected a project house in Ridgewood, New Jersey, not New England, but still among the bluest of blue states. In the 2020 election, Garden State voters gave 2,608,400 votes, 57.33%, to former Vice President Biden and Senator Emhoff, and 1,883,313 votes, only 41.40%, to President Donald trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Thats a landslide margin. Four years later, the election was closer in New Jersey, but Vice President Emhoff and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, received 2,220,713 votes, 51.97%, to 1,968,215, 46.06% for former President Trump and Senator J D Vance. While closer, the outcome in the state was never in doubt.
Bergen County, a sort-of suburb of New York City, was carried by the Democrats, 232,660, 50.68%, to 217,096, 47.29%.
So, how did the wealthy couple from Ridgewood heat their home?
In the basement, Richard Trethewey meets with plumbing and heating expert Kordian Rak, who explains the benefits of the home’s new combination boiler, capable of powering both the radiator heating and water heating systems. Together, they review the new piping system that runs from the basement to the attic and back, including a specialized setup that generates heat beneath the new kitchen floor slab.
It’s a brand new, very efficient boiler, and it’s a natural gas boiler. An original fireplace from the 1920s was retained. The kitchen range is not mentioned, but it is electric, where their older range was gas.
The Garden State does not have any mandate to ban gas heating in new construction, and even if such existed, this was a remodel, not a new build, so a gas heating system would have been grandfathered. But an extensive remodel, in a home in which the old gas-fired boiler had just failed, could have gone with an all-electric heating plan, but did not. If solar panels were to be added to this home, they were never mentioned.
As I write this, it is 17.2º F outside, and we’re in the early stages of the dreaded Snowpocalypse. It started snowing five hours ago, but there’s still only ¾ inch of snow on the ground. Our propane fireplace has occasionally supplemented our heat pump based HVAC system, to keep the house nice and warm. I can see how people in further north than me would want a steadier, more reliable gas heating system, but in very blue state New Jersey?
Well, who knows? Perhaps the homeowners were among the 47.29% of Bergen Countians who cast their votes more sensibly that the majority of residents in the state.
On October 16, 2024, the refiner Phillips 66 announced that it will 
At a climate summit at the United Nations on Wednesday, the vast majority of the world’s nations gathered to make their newest pledges to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade.
Many parts of the world are predicted to endure “day-zero droughts,” periods of extreme and unprecedented water scarcity, which could happen as soon as this decade in certain hotspots including parts of North America, the Mediterranean and southern Africa, according to a new study.
International collaboration on climate change is fraying. The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 treaty aiming to limit global warming, and has penalized the renewable-energy business and promoted fossil fuels. Ten years after Paris, a vast majority of countries are not on pace to meet their climate targets. With the United States sidelined and China ascendant as a clean-energy superpower, the global map of alliances on climate action is being redrawn. On top of all this, the planet keeps warming.
When we think about climate change, images of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and extreme weather often come to mind. But there’s a more personal—and often overlooked—dimension to this global issue: your skin. Yes, the largest organ of your body is silently bearing the brunt of a changing climate. From increased UV radiation to humidity fluctuations, climate change is influencing skin health in subtle but significant ways.