writeaboutwarming

June 27, 2013 – First of all, let me apologize for my erratic posting schedule.   The good news is I was able to enjoy two brief vacations in June.   The further good news is that there are no more trips in the pipeline, so I’m back at it.   Since my posting schedule isn’t the only thing that’s been erratic lately, let’s talk about the weather. Last Saturday, my husband, a friend, and I were heading back to Loveland from Indianapolis.   Traffic had been slow-moving on the way there, so we decided to take the long way home, thinking we’d be able to bypass the road construction.   Little did we know what lay ahead: strong winds, small hail, torrential rain that caused visibility to decline to zero at times, and electrical activity so intense that at one point we saw four cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike at the same moment.   My husband prides himself on allowing nothing to keep him off the road; however, this time he bowed to a storm more fearsom...

June 17, 2013 - Perhaps no one word describes climate change better than volatile .  There are a number of words like volatile that can help clarify what is meant by climate change: mercurial, fluctuating, and transient all can be applied - at times - to this emerging phenomenon.  As it emerges, it will grow in geographical impact, grow in severity of effects, grow in variety of effects, and grow exponentially as a result of positive feedback.  Last year will always be better than this year.  It will outpace us - our inability to act collectively will result in millions of individual actions.  Most of them will have been poorly thought out. For now, we must learn to accept that many of our poorly-informed collective actions only serve to compound errors.  Sequestration - a puzzling action at best - has stripped $50 million from the Forest Service's budget, eliminating the jobs of 500 firefighters.  Those still employed w...

June 15, 2013 – The political fallout resulting from global warming is ever more in evidence. Countries as diverse as Syria and China are both dealing with a dissatisfied populace that has taken matters into its own hands. Loss of faith in the government’s willingness to deal with environmental havoc resulted in 50,000 protests last year in China. I wrote recently of the climatic-political origins of the war in Syria. Where else might the climate change tinderbox ignite? The Inter Press Service News Agency recently wrote that flooding has come to stay in Europe. Central and Eastern Europe, after an extremely long winter that was followed by weeks of strong storms (sound familiar?), has seen the Danube and Elbe Rivers rise to record levels. Twenty-one people died as a result, and thousands were evacuated. Mudslides closed down roads and train lines in Austria, and in the Czech Republic, 20,000 people were evacuated from 700 different locations. Damage in the CR is thus far estimated ...

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live … “   Deuteronomy 30:19   June 6, 2013 – There’s an expression that goes “you’ll be dead a long time.”   The gist of this gallows humor is that, if you’re wasting your time worrying about something that isn’t your responsibility, or fighting a battle that was lost from the get-go, or spinning your wheels in any endeavor that can only be headed toward a frustrating outcome, stop.   Your life IS your responsibility (so take care of matters that lie within your sphere of influence), your time is VERY valuable ( so think carefully before you misspend it), life IS very short (so waste as little time as possible being unhappy).   You and I cannot predict the future – we can only suspect what lies ahead.   Live every day as if it were a gift.   It is. What makes you h...

June 3, 2013 – It’s interesting, on a number of levels, that leaders of the Atlanta Tea Party (ATP) are challenging utility company Georgia Power over its reluctance to increase use of solar power.   That, and the escalating costs of construction of a new nuclear power plant.   First and foremost, I’m perplexed that ATP co-founder Julianne Thompson found it necessary to assert that the organization’s position “certainly isn’t anything personal.”   Why is she denying what no one thinks is true to begin with?   Does she believe she is pre-empting other questions as well, by making a rhetorical statement?   She goes on to say that ”one of our core values is promoting the free-market system.” The San Francisco Chronicle expands on this remark by pointing out that the electricity market in Georgia is not free.   Electric utilities have exclusive rights to serve customers in designated areas of the state; the majority of customers cannot choose their provide...