Monday, December 11, 2006

Weather, Water, Energy 12-11-06

Doing the quick hit thing again today. A little busy.

  • Looks like this latest El Nino (tilde-challenged) will likely last into spring, bringing some rain to some areas that need it, not sure about others, maybe dampening the hurricane season predictions for 2007. Maybe a warmer winter than usual. That would be tough.
  • That news comes just after this prediction that the 2007 hurricane threat had been upgraded by scientists. What to do, what to do. At least Inhofe can claim meterologists don't know what they're talking about.
  • Eugene, OR, may be the country's "greenest" city, but even it can have problems living up to the creed.
  • Need nuclear power to offset carbon-based? Nuclear fuel can be turned into weapons? A "balance" is required. Yeah, . . . in a world with rational people, that might work. Good luck to us.
  • CA is investing $3.4 b. into promoting a million more rooftop, solar-electric systems, but, if that doesn't launch solar into cost-effective territory, they'll consider even that a failure. CA may be a zoo on a lot of things, but it's the pioneer in so many things we need to be doing in all the other states.
  • And its good Senator, the one that rhymes with Loxer, promises to revolutionize the Senate's past perspective on climate change, unlike the bad one that rhymes with Feinstein.
  • And a state senate leader in VT is doing likewise there. The states are where the action will be and it's good to see someone realizing that all the other usual issues on the agenda are all secondary to what's happening in front of our eyes, even if we're just now beginning to see. "There's no doubt in my mind that climate change is the biggest crisis," he says.

He's right.