I DID race today! Temperature: 49 degrees F. Winds: calm. Raining lightly. Almost bailed (see my previous post about NOT running in late May), but my friend Karen talked me into coming out at least to see what the weather would be like.

What a fabulous race.

What a fabulous place (Greenough Park).

Race results.

Climate Progress celebrates its 4th anniversary. Joe Romm says:

What I have learned most from the success of my blog, from the rapid growth in subscribers and visitors and comments, along with the increasing number of websites that link to or reprint my posts, is that there is in fact a great hunger out there for the bluntest possible talk. It is a hunger to learn the truth about the dire nature of our energy and climate situation, about the grave threat to our children and future generations, about the vast but still achievable scale of the solutions, about the forces in politics and media that impede action—a hunger to face unpleasant facts head on.

This blog is among the most important ones out there for providing links to the latest in climate science, and for taking the climate change denialists head-on in their disinformation efforts. It's one of the first blogs I read each day. I'll start passing more of his posts along to you. He doesn't deal with ecology or natural history per se (he's a physicist), but sometimes his commenters have nuggets of information. For example, in the comments of this post, 'Colorado Bob' said:

To the end of seeding tips that others miss, I suggest you add a category of “species response”. Into that, place reports of just what plants and animals are doing to respond , things like this :

Coffee threatened by beetles in a warming world

A tiny insect that thrives in warmer temperatures — the coffee berry borer — has been spreading steadily, devastating coffee plants in Africa, Latin America, and around the world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/ environment/ 2010/ aug/ 27/ coffee-threatened-beetles-warming

———–
It has been my experience that the deniers , can’t spin Humbolt Squid showing up in Sitka, Alaska, or pine beetles eating the Canadian lumber supply.

and this further down the thread:

An 11 year set of maps of the beetle kill march across in British Columbia from the Provincial Forest Service -

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/bcmpb/cumulative/1999.htm

The Aqua satellite pass over British Columbia 8-16-2010

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ gallery/ ?2010228-0816/ BritishColumbia.A2010228.2120.1km.jpg

It's a great web site. Important.

Hello, readers! I have been busy lately, but that is no excuse for not posting here.

I had a blog at 1Sky a few weeks ago.

The 2 take-home points from the post were:

1. The science is settled: climate change is occurring, it is due to human-caused burning of fossil fuels, and we no longer need to engage with the global-warming denialists. They (the denialists) are a relatively small proportion of the population, they will not be convinced, and their support is not necessary for us (Americans, global citizens) to take action against climate change. It is past time to move on.

2. The biggest roadblock (other than our senators and the money from Big Oil and Dirty Coal!) to finding support for action against climate change is economic concerns. The "policy" or "action" message must address "equity." When speaking out for action, we need to speak to the economic concerns of that massive "middle," who care about doing something about climate change but are afraid of the cost to themselves and their families.

Follow the links in the diary to other blogs I've posted, both here and at DailyKos, to see the evidence to support my arguments. One additional diary (and the links therein) that is part of my evidence is here. (It was edited out of the post for 1Sky.)

Okay, now you are up-to-date on my blogging activities. Don't forget that in addition to blogging, I do blogging research for 1Sky, and that has kept me busy.

(And lest we forget, I live in beautiful western Montana where summer activities, like having relatives visit, camping, hiking, and backpacking are an essential part of my life!)

Happy reading!