Local observations on climate change

Just found a link from a friend on Facebook (0.00 / 0)

Maybe there is hope yet, we just have to translate this into action.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 04:56:07 AM CDT

It is ridiculous that we have (0.00 / 0)

a) mountains of garbage to dumps while millions of people starve;

b) millions of empty residential structures while many more millions are homeless and sleeping under bridges; and

c) millions of unemployed adults while innumerable public works remain undone.

And why?  Because the tokens we use to promote and compensate useful work are being sequestered by a clan of gnomes which, Rumpelstiltskin-like, are fixated on turning dross into gold.  Money is a lubricant, not a fuel.  When you drain it out of the economy, the engine seizes up and the gears grind to a halt.

"Show me the money" needs to be replaced with "Give us the money that's been printed in our name."

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by: hannah @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 06:52:46 AM CDT

Photos from 100 years ago compared to today tell the story. (4.00 / 1)

A few years ago Discover magazine had a small piece about a project that was collecting photographs from the same place on the same date with 100 years or more between. They posted one of a cemetery in  Massachusetts shortly after the Civil War and today.

The differences are shocking--- Memorial day 100 years ago looked like late March today.  

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 06:58:25 AM CDT

NHPR (0.00 / 0)

had a segment on the NH apple and blueberry crops this morning, a lot of the crop was lost to frost during bloom.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 07:31:41 AM CDT

Drainage ditches, indeed. (4.00 / 2)

Part of the problem with climate change is that as the planet warms, massive amounts of moisture are trapped in the atmosphere.  We had a wet spring last year, and this year is almost as soggy.  Not great for the gardens.

Areas that are cold in the winter, but usually dry, have the potential to now see significant snow fall - this is why mid-Atlantic areas had record snow fall last year.  I was in DC in March and saw snow banks - in March!

I'm beginning to lose hope that we can solve this problem, mostly because we are unable to see that there is a problem.  If fantastic weather events and resource extraction catastophes aren't enough to shatter illusions and wake people up, what will it take?

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

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by: StraffordDem @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 12:58:17 PM CDT

Bill McKibben has a diary on Daily Kos (4.00 / 1)

in which he notes the following:

Consider the following things that have happened since the Deepwater exploded:

* Asia and Southeast Asia have each recorded their hottest temperatures ever -- 129 degrees in Pakistan, and 117 in Burma. India is having the worst heatwave since the British started keeping records -- people are dying by the hundreds.
* We've seen the biggest rainstorms ever recorded in lots of places, from Nashville to Guatemala -- the clear result of an atmosphere made 5% wetter because warm air holds more water vapor than cold.
* Satellite data has shown that Arctic ice is now melting even faster than in the record year of 2007.
* NASA has released new statistics showing that the past 12 months were the warmest on record and that 2010 is almost certain to set the title for the warmest calendar year yet.

I wish I knew how to get this across to people who are in denial, but the thing about denial is that usually it has to hurt a lot before people stop denying.  I hope we don't have to wait til the sea level rise along the NH coast swamps Portsmouth and Newington, among other communities.  Or other things of that magnitude.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 16:04:32 PM CDT