a blog about the changing world we live in
LET’S PAINT THE SOUTHWEST WHITE! We’ll start with the roofs then move on to driveways and parking lots and eventually the streets, the highways, and everything else. “Scientists look for the Holy Grail” addresses the search for creating a surface that’s cooler to the touch on a hot summer day than the air around it. [Read more] “let’s paint the southwest white!”
WHEN REQUIRED TO POST A PROFILE on the internet, I usually write, “Mystical liberal likes long walks alone at night in the dark in the city in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig.” While this bit of irony works for some readers, others want a little more in terms of personal background information. [Read more] “a little personal background information”
THE INABILITY OF RUSSIAN FARMERS to provide enough food for the people was a problem under both the Czars and the Soviets and remains a problem today. But the big thaw that global climate change is causing may be “propelling enormous human migrations as it transforms global agriculture and remakes the world order and no country stands to gain more than Russia.” [Read more] “russia could dominate a warming world after the big thaw”
MASSIVE WILDFIRE CLOUDS can be as dangerous as volcanic eruptions in some respects. As wildfires become more common, these clouds are becoming a greater hazard. This is addressed in the article “Towering fire-fueled thunderclouds can spew as many aerosols as volcanic eruptions,” which“As warming worsens wildfires, it may create conditions ripe for stronger pyrocumulonimbus clouds.” [Read more] “wildfire clouds can spew as many aerosols into the atmosphere as a volcanic eruption”
KAYAK VOYAGES TO THE NORTH POLE will soon be on the list of things-to-do for the more adventurous among us. The dynamics of weather itself are changing because of the thawing of the Arctic ice masses and it should probably be the biggest “news story” of our time if we humans paid attention to things that move so slowly. [Read more] “the dynamics of weather itself are changing”
GLOBAL CONGLOMERATE SHELL OIL (aka Shell Global and Royal Dutch Shell PLC), one of the giants in the fossil-fuel industry, had what was intended as a publicity move turned on them from various sources. This included tweets from two prominent names in the green energy movement.
An article titled “Shell’s climate poll on Twitter backfires spectacularly” on The Guardian website opened with these lines:
“A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public. [Read more] “shell oil versus octavia-cortez and thunberg”
MOST OF US NEVER HEARD OF “DRY LIGHTNING” until recently. It is cloud-to-ground lightning without any nearby rainfall. A dry lightning storm over Mitchell’s Cove in Santa Cruz, California, caused more than 10,000 bursts of lightning between August 15 and August 19, 2020, which in turn set off devastating wildfires across California.
IRELAND GETS A WAKE-UP CALL! According to the article “This Landmark Climate Case in Ireland Might Be ‘Huge’ for the Rest of Europe Too” by James Hutchings-Holes for Global Citizen (August 4, 2020), “Climate activists took on the government and won!” It begins:
“On July 31, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that Ireland’s climate plans just weren’t good enough as judged by the country’s very own standards. [Read more] “climate activists took the irish government to court and won!”
