"We're alright, Mom, we're going to Texas."

I'm watching ABC's coverage of the most recent natural onslaught. They have decided that the best way to cover this is with shakey, 'survivor' like filmwork, irritatingly zooming in on their reporters standing on people's shattered lives as they talk about whether or not the levvy system was effective. In the background, however, I can see and hear the comments from the world's newest refugees trying to communicate with their families the only was they can: screaming , yelling, and generally trying to get on camera.

I hope that woman's mother saw her.

ugh. I want to say something, but I can't really formulate anything that isn't as lame as what these reporters are saying.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome: Jackson Brown!!!

So this is my dog, Jack! He's an 8 month old, 70 pound masterpiece of cuteness (and I say this despite the completely eviserated curtains I came accross this morning). This is his picture from the clink, where mom and I found him earlier this week). I'll get some home pics asap! I need to run to work, but I wanted to post the pic! I'll let you know what he destroys tonight. :)

That's how a climate scientist says, "We're Screwed."

I'm finally back to being interested in what I do for a living. I'm not sure if this is just something that comes and goes with age, or if I was suffering burnout while living in the policy pressure cooker of Washington DC. Either way, 8 months out of the city, and not only am I actually (east coasters will gasp) jogging and wondering what kind of skis I'll buy, but I'm also picking up books on ecology and even opening energy and environment journals that might contain the words "global warming" or "climate change" or "economic development in China." In short, I'm currently digging what I've chosen to do with my life to this point.

That's the good news. The bad news, which far outweighs the good news, is that what I've been finding is that since I stopped paying attention about 4 years ago, the climate has not been improving. I just finished reading an article in this week's (released on Sundays) Nature (Letters section) by an MIT climate scientist named Kerry Emanuel. Kerry, over here, has been sitting in Boston, apparently running through reams of data on hurricanes from the last 50 years, and has this to say:

"I find that the record of net hurricane power dissipation is highly correlated with sea surface tempurature, reflecting well documented climate-signals, including multi-decadal oscillations in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and global warming. My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in tropical cyclone destructive potential, and [Note from Liz: yes, it gets better] taking into account an increasing coastal population -- a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the twenty-first century. "

Now, I read that this morning as I was drinking my morning coffee. I read it three times, in fact, twice initially and once after I read the paper (which includes some rather disturbing graphs and equations - charts and whatnot). I then put my coffee down and thought, "That's not really good news, now, is it, kids?"

I guess there is a little bit of a shining light here, though -- since I started ignoring climate change because of the frustrations in convincing people that it is happening, the argument has changed: in none of the papers I have read, including the hurricane paper, is anyone questioning the reality of anthropogenic (or otherwise, if you must have it that way, you right-wing zealot) based climate change, just the extent to which it is going to change our lives.

Have a good day :)