Results tagged “globalwarming”

After our recent heat wave, UW meteorologist Cliff Mass emphasized that weather shouldn't be confused with climate change. Then he added, with scientific sangfroid, "I suspect mankind will not act fast enough to reduce fossil fuel use to stop large global warming effects and that we will learn to live with it."

We don't listen to the "radio" but we do know of Thom Hartmann from his analysis of the rise of corporate culture, which is good reading. His Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture, though, got us all stirred up with nowhere to go. (Check out the excerpt on sociopathic CEOs on HuffPo.)

Ex-King County Exec. Ron Sims may have moved across the country, but he's still tweeting locally--we see he's just read Joel Connelly's piece on global warming deniers at SeattlePI.com. (No, he didn't have much success at persuading the deniers: first comment begins, "Well as usual Connelly doesn't get it.") But since Connelly's point is that scientific research bounces off the deniers, ten seconds with the comments section persuades anyone else that he does get it. If you look at the Know-Nothing crowd as a crowd, you're tempted to wonder what they know you don't. But when you look at what they do believe, there's no united front there--just an assembly of cranks who misunderstand the scientific method, and prefer to come to their own conclusions.

Thanks to a study led by Julian Sachs, a UW associate professor of oceanography, scientists tracked rainfall from 1400 to 1850 at four Pacific islands, and found, in scientific-ese: "that the Pacific intertropical convergence zone was south of its modern position for most of the past millennium, by as much as 500 km during the Little Ice Age."

We were just reading the Weekly's conversation with Cliff Mass about global warming's effects on the Northwest: in the coming years, "late springs and early summers may actually be cooler--at least in the Western part of the state." Compare that with today's Seattle Times story on spring coming earlier around here: "Dozens of studies concur that the onset of spring--as measured by the response of plants, animals and ecosystems--is about a week earlier than it was 50 years ago," and Lake Washington's "spring cycle of warming and algae growth now start three weeks earlier than it used to." Spring comes earlier and gets colder. FAIL.

UW atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass became a local internet celebrity seemingly overnight during last year's Snowmageddon, when he was forecasting weather in circles around all the other so-called weathermen. In addition to his blog, he's got a book, The Weather of the Pacific Northwest, that came out last fall. His next lecture, "The Secrets of Northwest Weather Prediction," is tomorrow night at Town Hall (7:30 p.m.). Tickets are $5.

Hat tip to Sightline's Clark Williams-Derry, who jumped on this Obama quote he found in Newsweek about the need for collective action on global warming--all over the U.S., we imagine, there's barely concealed public policy joy about having voted in a president who's his own think tank. Obama's discussing his performance in debates, and his struggle with answering questions that miss the mark: "So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I fucking changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

There are 12 weeks until Election Day, and 12 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (13 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand.

The Arctic ice is apparently all gone, or may well be soon, according to the (UK). "The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice," writes science editor Steve Connor, "making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer." It turns out that currently, 70% of the polar ice cap is "first year" ice. The ice cap shrinks and expands yearly, but last year it shrunk to one of the smallest levels yet known, to within 700 miles of the pole. This year, scientists predict it could completely disappear for the first time in known human history.

Yesterday's stormy weather left over 35,000 homes in Western Washington without power. Nearly 20,000 of the homes affected were in Seattle and South King County. The National Weather Service warned of gusts of over 55 mph yesterday and, while it's no scientific measure, the windows of our house were rattling and the power flickered more than once last night. Thankfully, it never went out. The Washington State Ferry Service reported "steady winds at nearly 40 mph" off Alki Beach, which must have made for some unpleasantly rough weather on the Sound.

Seattlest keeps waiting and waiting for the right weekend to head out for our inaugural hike of 2008. There are few things we love more than hiking through the cool misty forests of Cedars and Doug Firs; the monotony of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other up a mountain brings us a zen calm. After driving through the mountains for Memorial Day weekend, we were feeling especially itchy to head out on the trail. But we are going to have to wait, just like every other eager would-be hiker.

The weather, it just gets worse.

TEENY BOPPER EXPRESS: Disney's High School Musical opens at the Paramount tonight, so maybe steer clear of the teenagers downtown. If you have your own teenager, maybe it's a good night to set them free with their friends so they can go sing along and goo-goo-ga-ga over the cute boys and dreaminess of this sensational teenfest.

Sorry local fisherman. After the NOAA ruled out shooting as a cause of death, we know we passed the blame to your understandable anger at the gluttonous sea oafs. But the latest theory on just how six local sea lions died places the blame squarely on mother nature's shoulders. Now, according to investigators, the sea lions do not appear to have died of gunshot wounds, puncture wounds, or murderous fisher-folk, but rather heat exhaustion. The NOAA, who's obviously been wrong before about the cause of death, hopes that studying samples of the sea lions tissue will settle the mystery once and for all.

If you thought snow in late March was strange, just wait till you try snow in late April! The National Weather Service says Western Washington should expect a cold weekend, with high temperatures venturing into the low 40s. They've forecasted 1 to 2 feet of snow in the Cascades over the weekend and lowland snow showers at elevations as low as 1,000 feet. So last Saturday it was pushing 80 degrees, and this Saturday we should expect snow showers? Great news for skiers who don't want to let go of an epic season. Not so great for the rest of us who are clamoring for a little springtime sunshine.

Is the weather getting stranger here by the day or is it just us?

The choreographic genius of Spectrum's Donald Byrd makes God-fearing folk swear and the irreligious cry, "Oh my god!" Partly that's because his dancers present as solid, sweating people, rather than mysteriously gesturing messengers. He consistently brings ideas back to the body--his pas de deux can have an X-rated quality--so you feel the argument he's making.

We have never before had the visual treat of seeing the cherry blossoms in full bloom and snow at the same time. It's been this Seattlest's favorite part of the strange spring snow flurries. From just outside our house:

On this, the 26th day of March, it was snowing at 8pm on Capitol Hill--and it was even sticking to cars, to the grass, to the trees. WTF? It is nearly April, right?

Over at the Seattle Times, Sheila Farr was knocked out by Camille Seaman's show, The Last Iceberg, at Photographic Center Northwest. You can preview some of her photos here. Like Edward Burtynsky's photographs of quarries and trash heaps, there's a troubling aesthetic at work. Reflected in the dissolving grandeur of Seaman's ice-scapes is global warming. Says Farr:

A member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, born in 1969, Seaman records images that suggest a twilight-of-the-gods scenario at the melting polar ice cap. She points it out in the title of her eerie 2006 "Valhalla." Craggy frozen figures seem to be left standing after a production that has played out and ended badly — reminiscent of an earlier age when mastodons were caught in a cryogenic wind, summer daisies between their teeth.

Continue reading "Can't Miss It: Monday"

Vedder’s first solo music video—for his critically lauded and Grammy-nominated Into the Wild song “Guaranteed”—airs on VH1 (and VH1.com) on Monday. Perfect timing, then, for the ever-more-famous guy to bump into his 1992 self while browsing Easy Street’s vinyl bins. Serendipity!

Dennis McLerran, head of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is "pissed." Governor Schwarzenegger is suing federal regulators. According to more than 500 news articles, The Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s bill to place limitations on vehicle emissions, which would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent in the next 10 years. McLerran claims in a Seattle Times article the EPA’s decision is purely political, not factual.

Behind our couch lives what we refer to as our "third cat." Much more well-behaved and definitely lower-maintenance, petting-wise, than the two actual cats from whence it came, but more or less inert unless there's a breeze. When we sweep behind the couch every three or four years we generally don't carry the third cat down to the Sound and chuck him in, but that's what storm runoff is doing right now to a lot of people.

We're not yet convinced that the current War on Plastic Shopping Bags/Global Warming will stand the test of time, but we sure are intrigued that everyone everywhere seems to be trying to make the eco-friendly message stick (do you really think NBC's "Green Week" is destined for the history books? Neither do we.).

We gotta admit to being kind of a sci-fi nerd. We own all the Star Wars movies in most of their various formats and edits, have read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels numerous times (including the atrocious Mostly Harmless), and actively seek out any books and films that depict any kind of a dystopic view of our future. So when we heard that yet another cut of Blade Runner was playing at the Cinerama, AKA: God's Gift to Seattle, you can bet we made plans to get down there.