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Blanche01, agreed. The comparison would be useful, though.
We forget that the electricity we use is created largely by large fossil-fuel fired plants with attendant losses of efficiency in tranmission (versus smaller plants with loss of efficiency of scale).
Ocean temps off California are higher than ususal also, according to the WUNDERGROUND tropical/hurricane map.
I envy Cynthia her "fearful rain" under a sound roof.
posted by
majroj
on July 27, 2006 at 7:52 AM
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that's a fearful rain
posted by
star4sky5
on July 26, 2006 at 8:19 PM
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Majroj, I am no scientist, but all these SUVS and factories have to pumping
out a hell of a lot of CO2, not to mention just living, breathing carbon based life forms, namely us. I have to think that it has an impact of some kind and that it's not strictly benign, disturbing the balance somehow.
posted by
Blanche.
on July 26, 2006 at 7:31 PM
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I wonder how our CO2 emissions compare to those of highly volcanic periods,
or back when potentially entire regions would burn over due to a dry summer after a wet winter and a little lightning?
Of course, we are also killing our CO2 sponges in the photosynthetic realm, and the reef-builders.
I think your Austrian friends were just thinking it was a little more of America as one sees it on TV.
posted by
majroj
on July 26, 2006 at 7:26 PM
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Cynthia, that was an exciting week, tempestuous storms, power down,
and trying to get work done and all. I'm still not in the new millenia with wifi, but I sympathize with those that are and trying to get work done on them. I was reassured to read Majroj's comment on cyclical trends, although with the amount of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere in the last 100 years, it can't be a good or benign thing. Still, I hope you don't lose your natural optimism and ebullience.
I struggle to find that balance, that realistic optimism, and the book "Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway" had a good point: the underlying basis for almost all fear is "How will I handle it if X happens" and the truth is we will handle it. Whatever IT is, we will handle it.
So, I hope your workshops continue to do well, and your teaching prospers, it sounds exciting. And yes, I am right there with you on your assessment of the current Administration. I'm just worn out trying to discuss it with people who want to live in denial.
posted by
Blanche.
on July 26, 2006 at 2:53 PM
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Whacky, I'm glad you got that impression.
But most days I'm not so sure.
posted by
Cynthia
on July 26, 2006 at 5:01 AM
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Maj, in spite of the fact that
there was a car chase and shoot out in their hotel parking lot (after we told them Cambridge was one of the safest cities in America) and the arrived in NYC for a visit the day "Dr. Boom" blew up his home on the upper eastside, our Austrian friends went home "loving America". We are not sure why;-)
posted by
Cynthia
on July 26, 2006 at 5:00 AM
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Sounds hopeful more than fearful.
posted by
Whacky
on July 24, 2006 at 5:13 PM
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I seem to sense your excitement. Bon Appetite.
posted by
majroj
on July 23, 2006 at 8:40 PM
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All good points Maj,
your comment was an enjoyable read. We had house guests from Austria the entire week I was up in Maine teaching. We gave them our bedroom and bath and RG slept in the small guest room. They will be taking us out to dinner tonight as a thank-you. It was their first visit to the USA and I'm eager to hear what they thought.
posted by
Cynthia
on July 23, 2006 at 10:37 AM
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Good to have you back, keep your snorkel above water.
I was looking at some climatic figures for my latest (last?) post and noticed that the weather in the U.S. during the Dustbowl period, before small scale refrigeration and during a period people couldn't afford personal cooling, was much worse than that which we are having at this point. The trend reversed itself into the halcyon days lasting into the early Eighties, which we perceive as "the norm".
We also tend to interpret the our maladies as being the whole world's, when it fact theirs are different (what does a Mongolian herder care about rolling brownouts?) or worse (compare the effect of a one foot sea rise to the U.S., versus Bangladesh, Vietnam, and many islands). I wrote about a heat wave in Nebraska in 1981 (which coincided with terrific radio effects from sunspots, see http://www.spaceweather.com/java/sunspot.html ), but compare that with recent times in Chicago and especially with France (over 14,000 dead http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2003-09-25-france-heat_x.htm ).
My brother in law is from a non-European country; it must only be his exemplary good manners and senses of forebearance and good humor that keep him from alternately laughing out loud and making disparaging remarks at we America-centric people.
posted by
majroj
on July 23, 2006 at 8:42 AM
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