Earth Day, fifty years on, looks a lot different from the early Earth Days I remember. Followers of this blog may recall my claim to be “older than dirt” (as a gardener who composts, I can confidently make that claim). I also am older than Earth Day. As with many things in the 1970s, however, I came to Earth Day a bit late. Many schools in the US let out classes or didn’t count absences, if students left campus to participate in peaceful demonstrations…
The Artdog Quote-Pairing of the Week Enough naysayers persist in positions of power to dangerously impede efforts to mitigate climate change. Most insist nothing is wrong with the world. Others claim it’s impossible to do anything. But “impossible” is what the unimaginative tend to call the problem we haven’t yet solved. One of the most useful things we can do for our future is work hard to vote all of the former out of office. The other thing we must figure out is how to ensure that the…
How many times and in how many different ways have we destroyed the earth? The “we” in that sentence refers to science fiction writers. Yet again the other day, a friend read a book description out loud, and the rest of us could almost guess how each phrase would go before she said it. A “dying Earth” (COD not specified in this blurb) has been fled by the “last remnants of the human race” who are, of course, “desperate [for] a new home among…
There must be few more horrifying things than to watch a wildfire come sweeping down a canyon straight toward you and your home. Yet it’s more and more likely all over the world, thanks to global climate change. That horror is alive and on the march in California this week, both in the wine country of the northern part, and in the Anaheim Hills near Los Angeles. Not so very long ago Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho were dealing with a similar disaster. Each…
The Artdog Quotes of the Week: Today I present a study in contrasts. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks for the global community on this one. United States leadership still persists in questioning the science to a greater extent than any other major nation. Including, unfortunately, this guy: IMAGES: Many thanks to the World Economic Forum for the Ban Ki-moon quote (check the linked page for more good ones), and to Business Insider, CNN and Bill Nye for the quote…
The Artdog Quote of the Week: Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a good point here, as usual. Problem is, E=mc2 doesn’t threaten certain industries’ corporate profits. The climate change “controversy” stems from the same root cause (and had been promoted by some of the exact same people) as the “controversy” over whether smoking causes lung cancer (brace yourself: it does!). IMAGE: Many thanks to the Climate Reality Project (check out their website!) for this image, and many other resources.
The Artdog Images of Interest Three major signals of climate change’s onset are increased rates and ferocity of fires, deepening drought, and increasingly violent storms. Today’s image focuses on fire. Firefighters worked for days to control wildfires around Mecklenberg County, NC in November 2016. I hope this photographer didn’t get singed, taking this behind-the-burning brush photo! Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate a photographer’s credit. This North Carolina fire was only one of hundreds (it’s surprising, how difficult it seemed to be,…
The Artdog Quote of the Week: Does anybody else miss President Barack Obama the way I do? As usual, he’s making good sense, here. Also as usual, a lot of people haven’t/aren’t/refuse to listen. Gonna be a squeaker, if it isn’t already too late, I fear. IMAGE: Many thanks to TodayInSci for this image.
The Artdog Images of Interest: In early March, the Trump Administration proposed to cut almost a quarter of the budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather satellite program, despite global dependence upon them (by both corporations and government) for accurate weather forecasting. There seems little point to that, until one remembers that satellite photos make it harder to deny climate change. How so? Consider these photos: This is a famous lake . . . famous for shrinking. These…