Category Archives: Climate

Arts -Visual, Arts: Biography-Autobiography, Arts: Storytelling, Books & Book Reviews, Climate, Cross-Generational Issues, Culture wars, Current Affairs, Disasters, Families, Hard-Core Quaker, North Carolina, Quakers, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Signs of the Times, Women & Girls

New Issue of “Types & Shadows” – Quaker Arts Journal-Online NOW (Free)

Leave a comment

You can read and browse it here free:  

Types & Shadows is the quarterly journal of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts. (FQA) It first appeared in 1996, and has been produced ever since by dedicated and creative volunteers.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) were strongly against the arts for their first two centuries, regarding them as “vain” and hazardous distractions from plainness and more serious and “spiritual” things.

Their evolution away from this prohibition is traced in an FQA Booklet, Beyond Uneasy Tolerance, which is also available free on the FQA website.

Continue reading New Issue of “Types & Shadows” – Quaker Arts Journal-Online NOW (Free) →

“New Normal”, Climate, Cross-Generational Issues, Disasters, Fire This Time, Future, Signs of the Times, Weather

Gwynne Dyer: Happy(??) Climate New Year

2 Comments

Welcome to ‘Uncharted Territory’

Gwynne Dyer, January 2, 2025

New Year is when we do the accounts for the year, and the bad news always gets top billing: how many wars are going on, how big were the natural disasters, etc.? Climate change now has its own slot in this annual accounting, and here is what the climate pundits will say.

First they will acknowledge that 2024 has been the hottest year since we began keeping records a few centuries ago. This will be accompanied by the usual clucking about how naughty we have all been, not cutting our greenhouse gas emissions fast enough. Continue reading Gwynne Dyer: Happy(??) Climate New Year →

Climate, Disasters, Hurricanes, North Carolina, Weather

Debby – Durham Update: The Eye’s Wide Open

1 Comment

3:10 PM – August 8, 2024

We’re still here, the rain has paused, the wind is light, and sunlight feels close to breaking through.

But . . . . The radar says Debby, or this end of it/her, is west of us, swirling lazily counterclockwise, and could come around and do another dump on us tonight on the way north up the coast.

The weather people are predicting  this.  We had two warnings, now there’s three: besides more heavy rain tonight, thunder & lightning too, with a chance of tornadoes. Did I mention I’m not a fan of twisters?

Our personal forecaster, Ms. Kitty, is feeling cautious. On non-stormy days, she is mostly outside. Right now, she’s keeping a cautious eye out.

We’ve had two power outages, relatively brief.
I’m going to do some editing, if I can concentrate. And stay dry. Then maybe check on the action on the weirdness front.

Climate, Life Is Good, North Carolina, Weather

Debby’s Done Dithering — Durham is Getting Dumped On

Leave a comment

6:00AM EDT August 8, 2024

The sun is not up, but the rain is pouring down. Outside, in the pre-dawn murk, the trees are moving, but winds are not yet strong. Emergency alerts have been beeping nonstop on the phone & Ipad, urging us to get the hell away from here. But we’re going to ride it out. There’s no thunder/lightning at this point. No power outages yet

The house is halfway up a rise; the water will have to come up many feet to reach us. My guess is the main hazard would be from trees falling.  Last spring we cut back several tall but dying ash trees close enough to land on the house, which should have reduced that threat. But after this soaking, any burst of strong winds will bring big trees down in the area, and power outages could follow. Continue reading Debby’s Done Dithering — Durham is Getting Dumped On →

Arts: Cartoons, Climate, Cross-Generational Issues, Disasters, Science, Signs of the Times

Dyer: Global Heating: Breaking Records, Beating Forecasts; Now What?

1 Comment

Climate Change: The August Deadline
By Gwynne Dyer — 31 July 2024

When you spend four years writing a book on climate change, you get to know most of the leading players. I have never seen them so dismayed.

“By August, if we’re still looking at record-breaking temperatures, then we really have moved into uncharted territory,” said climate scientist Gavin Schmidt in April. Well, 22 July was the hottest average global temperature ever recorded – and 23 July promptly broke that brand new record. Here we are in August, and it is not looking promising.

Gavin Schmidt is Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was choosing his words very carefully when he used the phrase ‘uncharted territory’, because that is a frightening place to be. Continue reading Dyer: Global Heating: Breaking Records, Beating Forecasts; Now What? →