what WILL they think of us?

I have changed the header background image for this blog to a composite NASA image of the Earth at night, culled from several hundred images taken over the course of several months.

This image seems right because the main point of this blog is this:  If visitors from outer space did actually come upon planet Earth at night, they would see something like this (on the half of the globe that was in darkness).  They would be initially impressed, no doubt.  But once they investigated further, what kind of planet would we like to be able to present to them?  Not just how we dealt with our environment, but how we had organized our society both to create prosperity and to ensure just and ethical treatment of members of all species (including, of course, our own).  In other words, what would our best society and our best care for our planet look like to these aliens?  What would they think of us?

large magellanic cloud

The star-forming region ('stellar nursery') of the Large Magellanic Cloud, ~157 light years away from Earth, in our Milky Way galaxy.

dscovr

For the first time since the famous Apollo 14 images from 1972, we now have a satellite beaming back images of Earth.

https://www.algore.com/project/the-deep-space-climate-observatory

pluto

Some amazing images coming from NASA's New Horizons probe of Pluto:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33543383?SThisFB&fb_ref=Default

the dogcatcher pledge

Around sunup today, as I was lying in bed pondering the nature of reality and sipping on my stone-cold cup of Folger's Instant, a brilliant idea came to me. BRILLIANT! I call it 'The Dogcatcher Pledge':

'I pledge that I won't vote for any Republican at any level-- from dogcatcher or state legislator right on up to the presidency-- until the Republican party acknowledges the reality of man-made climate change and makes a serious proposal to deal with it.'

If we could get 4-5 million people to sign this, the Republicans would sit up and take notice. And if we could get 10 or 20 million people to sign it, they would in fact start losing elections, at all levels -- even ones they would otherwise have won. This would also have the effect of moving this issue to the fore in our national politics. Although polls now show a solid majority believe climate change is happening, we're causing it, and we should do something about it, it still polls at or near the bottom of people's priorities. This could change that.

the sky is REALLY falling this time

The scariest scenario I've come across yet.  The author, unbelievably enough, holds the Milton Friedman chair in economics at the University of Chicago.

What if we really did 'Burn It All'?  'The use of all reserves and resources would lead to a total increase of 16.2 degrees. Today’s climate and planet would very likely be unrecognizable.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/upshot/if-we-dig-out-all-our-fossil-fuels-heres-how-hot-we-can-expect-it-to-get.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

the sky IS falling

from the Tokyo Climate Center:  Global average temperature variations for March, stretching back over a century.

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/mar_wld.html

two thirds? really?

According to this poll, two-thirds of Americans support a revenue-neutral carbon tax.  Really?

http://www.carbontax.org/blogarchives/2015/04/15/carbon-tax-polling-milestone-23-support-if-revenue-neutral/

the sky IS falling

'The Amazon was responsible for one-fifth to one-quarter of carbon sequestered on land, so any decline in its efficiency as a carbon sink was of consequence to efforts to combat climate change.'

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/18/amazons-trees-remove-third-less-carbon-decade-ago-emissions?CMP=EMCENVEML1631

the inhofe file

I have decided that I'm going to spend as much time and energy as I can to try to get Sen. James Inhofe removed as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

People say that a main reason for preventing the building of the Keystone XL pipeline is that building it will indicate that we're simply not really serious about doing anything about global warming, that we're just going to go after every last drop of oil, no matter where it is or how dirty it is.

I feel the same way about Senator Inhofe.  If we allow him to continue to chair this committee, which deals most directly with climate change, it will indicate that we simply are not serious in trying to bring about political change to deal with this issue.  I don't have financial resources to put into this, but I don't think that's important.  What I do have is time, so in the weeks and months ahead I'll be investing as much of it as I can into getting Sen. Inhofe out of that position.  He's simply got to go.