Climate
The Climate in Seattle is Changing
By Brian Abbey My name is Brian Abbey, and I was born and raised in Seattle. Well, Burien, actually, and I spent a lot of time in Leavenworth. But I’ve lived in and around Seattle my whole life, where it rains, on average, 155.3 days per year and where we have 152 days of sunshine per year. You can learn a lot through statistics and averages. The average annual high temperature is 59º and the low is 45º and we have 2,019 average hours of sunshine per year. You can learn other things too, like that it doesn’t get real hot for real long, and eventually it always, and I mean always rains. But there are some things that statistics can’t tell you in any meaningful way. Like the fact that this year it got real hot, hotter than I can ever remember. And it was dryer than I can remember it ever being. And as these extreme weather events keep playing out, people start conflating a heat wave with climate change. Now, I’m not an atmospheric scientist, but I do have a degree in environmental studies, and I’ve studied these things enough to know that, well, it’s time we have the talk. See, I think most people out there don’t quite understand what the climate is, why it’s changing, or really why it should even matter to them. And while I’ve never been good with analogies, I think that under the circumstances we need a better way to convey the urgency with which we have to ask about climate change. What it comes down to is this: we have to make changes, or the earth will make them for us. For all the Brian Abbey’s and Joe Smith’s of the world.
By Albert David4 years ago in Earth
Global Warming is Real and We Can't Keep Pretending!
Global warming and terms like climate change and the greenhouse effect are not simply words we toss around as part of lite conversation. These things are real and happening at even a faster rate than scientists first predicted.
By Justiss Goode4 years ago in Earth
Learning to Lead in Higher Education During Times of Uncertainty
Global higher education — like many other sectors — is at a pivotal moment, experiencing a time of rapid change and uncertainty. There is a need to shape the future quickly, to repurpose and reinvent. In addition, the advancement of digitalization and technologies has opened new ways of learning and accessing knowledge.
By Viona Aminda4 years ago in Earth
Some Things I Remember About the Cedar Fire
That time it was the biggest fire in California history. That time the guy stood in the popcorn room of the refugee hotel. (In October 2003, we were still called refugees.) That stunned look on his face I already knew too well. That awkward elbow-out way he held the phone at his ear because we still thought you had to hold your cell phone to your head. What he said: “My house is gone, my folks’ house in San Bernardino is gone, I can’t get them on the phone, I’m done with southern California, that’s it, it’s over.” What my friend’s voice shouted from my phone: “Mom’s great-uncle is in San Bernardino. We can’t find out if he’s alive or dead. You’re closer, you can get through, can you please call him, he’s blind, he just made a hundred.” Yes, two fires at the same time. More than two, come to that. But the Cedar Fire and whatever they called the one in San Berdoo are the only two I remember now. At this hotel, the refugees were allowed to bring their pets. Most were floof dogs, big-eyed and curious and a little hushed as they looked up and down the check-in line. One woman held an Amazon parrot. You couldn’t go outside because of the smoke. But everyone spilled out of the popcorn room with their plastic cups of complimentary wine because the popcorn room was too confining, too red and yellow, too bright somehow. And also it felt rude to sit there while this guy called everyone he knew who still had service. So into the lobby and across to the lounge where there was a seventies-style glass patio door overlooking the famous pool. It had a heavy plastic cover on it. The guy was stuck on repeat, something I’d noticed before from victims of shock: “I didn’t even have time to get my wallet. My house is gone, my folks’ house in San Bernardino is gone, I can’t get them on the phone.” A woman somehow out there in a jogging costume. Ponytail jaunty. A pink sweatband. Pink sweat shorts. White running shoes. She thought she was doing something healthy. The look on the man’s face before he went out too: “Somebody has to tell her to get inside.” The way he pulled his shirt up high to cover his nose and mouth. All the times a robot voice picked up when I called the great-uncle: “That number is not in service.” Eyes dazed, phone out of battery, the guy told me the same story in the same words: “My house is gone, my folks’ house…” Had I repeated myself like this when my little house was crushed under 20,000 pounds of red pin oak? I must have. The sense of looking in a mirror was too strong. That time a few weeks later when I read they had more fire trucks in low-income New Orleans than wealthy San Diego. There was public corruption somehow somewhere. There would be an investigation. Although maybe it was Orleans Parish that was corrupt, and somebody was putting relatives in all those jobs. Who remembers that part now? I don’t. That time later yet in the open-air bar near Villa Tunari, Bolivia. Wet and green and who knows how many thousand miles away. Here I sat, drinking wine with the old frenemy who still lived in San Diego after all that. Well, I was drinking it. He said Bolivian wine was undrinkable, and anyway he didn’t need to drink to share his endless yarns about the endless fires, and finally I said, “We were stuck downtown during the Cedar Fire,” and he paused for a beat, and then he said, “Hmm. The Cedar Fire? I don’t remember that one.” By then, there had been too many. It was October 2009.
By Amethyst Qu4 years ago in Earth
Climate Change Has Become A Serious Concern For Humanity
Some Basic Facts About Climate Change Climate change encompasses both human-caused global warming and its long-term effects on weather patterns. Climate change has occurred in the past, but the current changes are more rapid than any known event in Earth’s history. The main contributor is the release of greenhouse gases, primarily methane and carbon dioxide. The majority of these emissions are caused by the use of fossil fuels for energy.
By SA News Channel4 years ago in Earth
The End of The World: The five best films about the climate apocalypse
The new sustainable development trend (ESG agenda) opened the world to concepts such as organic and ecological goods. Large companies are modernizing their production to reduce their environmental impact. The interests of travelers also change. Tourists began to choose places that support the principles of sustainable development. The film industry is not lagging behind these spheres. Their work is carried out in several directions.
By JOHN ANDERSON4 years ago in Earth
