According to the 1981-2010 normals to be released by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on July 1, temperatures across the United States were on average, approximately 0.5 degree F warmer than the 1971-2000 time period.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Sshh. Don’t tell anyone. But “while you are reading these words, four people will have died from starvation. Most of them children.” Seventeen words. Four deaths. That statistic is from a cover of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 provocative “Population Bomb.”

By the time you finish this column, another five hundred will die. By starvation. Mostly kids. Dead.

There is a new tool sharpening California's renewable vision. It is in the form of a state-of-the-art system control center that houses the first dedicated renewables dispatch facility in the nation. As the state approaches a goal of generating 20 percent of its power from renewable resources, which escalates to an ambitious 33 percent by 2020, ensuring reliability brings new meaning to California grid operations.