Crazed Cliff

December 3, 2012

Another way-too-fast start to the work week and on this early Monday at least it’s not raining right now, but we only have to wait a short while.
We in a little break, with more rain and some wind due this evening and tomorrow morning, though, from all weather indicators the power storms have passed us on for another day.

During the last four days, however, we got hit, and hit pretty hard — see local results here — and the low-lying regions have experienced a lot of flooding, especially along the Mad River just south of where I live, which incidentally is nearly 200 feet above sea level.

(Illustration found here).

And way up here we’re spared a lot of the shit that cascades to the lower parts — a lot of the weather misses us right here on the coast with more water and wind blasting further ashore.
Wind is picking up outside right now, still a couple of hours from dawn’s first light, and with it a sharp chill to the air, so maybe this fourth edition to the latest bad-weather cycle might be circling in from the north.

Meanwhile, the earth is heading towards doomsville: According to a new report by the Global Carbon Project, the world’s fossil fuel addiction pumped 38.2 billion tons of carbon pollution, or 2.4 million every second, last year.
China alone jumped up 10 percent in emissions — how are we going to stop it?

Ordinary people just don’t get it — yet.
From Time this morning on seeing without thought is believing:

In other words, climate change is hard to really see in one’s daily life, and understanding it requires “analytic information processing” — otherwise known as thinking.
That’s not something people have a lot of time, inclination (and perhaps ability) to do.
But those who have been personally affected by climate change — which includes more than a quarter of the American public — report that they’ve personally experienced the effects of climate change, and that tends to be associated with higher levels of certainty that climate change is happening.

One good cause is US leaders are bat-shit crazy insane — look at the time-wasting ‘fiscal cliff,’ bullshit.
Like nit-twit Lindsey Graham, blubbering without a dab of sense: “I think we’re going over the cliff.”
Or John ‘The Boner‘ Boehner also blubbering astonishment at President Obama: “I was just flabbergasted,” Boehner told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. “I looked at him and said, ‘You can’t be serious.’ I’ve just never seen anything like it.”
All of what The Boner is griping about, Obama ran his presidential campaign on — nothing new.

The end of nonsense from Calculated Risk, one of the more intelligent financial sites:

This will be another week of sausage making – uh, “fiscal cliff”, or more accurately “austerity slope” – negotiations.
The key question for the economy is: When and how much austerity will the US fiscal authorities enact?
My guess is an agreement will be reached in early January, and Federal austerity will subtract 1 percent to 1.5 percent from GDP in 2013.
Note: There is no drop dead date — despite the silly countdown timers on some sites.

Another sound mind on the subject, Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture: Suffice it to say that I think this entire issue is a purely fabricated display of childish foolishness, a national embarrassment.

What’s really a shame is the bottom lines to the Time article above:

The good news — of a sort — is that as the climate warms, more and more people will have that “personal experience” with global warming that the residents of New York got to enjoy at the end of October.
Just one problem: By the time enough people have actually been personally touched by climate change, it might be too late to do much about it.

A cliff a-coming!

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