Raining again this way-early Friday morning on California’s north coast, and warm, too. We need the rain, and the heat takes the bite out of getting quickly soaked.

Water and warmth, which together create a way-rainy future, as reported yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): The study also showed a 20-30 percent expected increase in the maximum precipitation possible over large portions of the Northern Hemisphere by the end of the 21st century if greenhouse gases continue to rise at a high emissions rate.
And what’s going to stop it?

Not with this shit: Figures released in March by the official U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show U.S. coal exports reached a record of more than 115 million tons in 2012, more than double the 2009 figure.
Coal is far more toxic than another pollutant — as you were, boys.

(Illustration found here).

Right now, climate change appears to be meandering along, taking its time to reach whatever end expected for the last 200 years of a fossil-fueled mechanical age, and humanity is more involved in greater matters, like gay marriage and control of lady parts.
Along with coal, humans also face the break-neck obstruction of other humans — one such pure asshole is Sen. James Inhofe, who tell-tales his part to keeping the lid on climate change by being way-darkly funny:

“I was not surprised to see myself front and center on the promotional material for this climate change movie,” he told the Tulsa World (by way of the Huffington Post), “and quite frankly, I’m proud of it.”
Inhofe is one of many Republicans who often refers to climate change as a hoax, and maintains that the weather changes cyclically regardless of what humans do.
“Ever since my first speech on this topic, I have found it astonishing how organizations have credited me capable of single-handedly bringing about the end of the world,” Inhofe said in a statement.

Inhofe was responding to his part in a new documentary entitled, ‘Greedy, Lying Bastards,’ a look at a bunch of nefarious politicians polluting the climate-change debate. He and a shitload of similar clowns are in the same delusional mode as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, babbling crazy and putting the lives of countless millions on the line for way-personal reasons.
And President Obama himself is turning out to be a climate-change stall-maker, as his speech Wednesday at a fundraiser in San Francisco wallowed into bullshit. Via msnbc:

“The politics of this are tough. Because if you haven’t seen a raise in a decade; if your house is still $25,000, $30,000 underwater; if you’re just happy that you’ve still got that factory job that is powered by cheap energy…you may be concerned about the temperature of the planet, but it’s probably not rising to your number-one concern,” the president said.
“And if people think, ‘well, that’s shortsighted, that’s what happens when you’re struggling to get by.’
You’re thinking about what’s right in front of you, which is how do I fill up my gas tank and how do I feed my family?”

Dude, have some freakin’ urgency.
From Skeptical Science yesterday about climate change studies: However, this argument misses a key point – climate scientists aren’t terribly concerned about the current state of the Earth’s climate. If we were to stabilize atmospheric CO2 levels below 400 parts per million (ppm) — a level we are rapidly approaching — most people would be thrilled about that (especially if those levels eventually drop to somewhere around 350 ppm). The concern is that human CO2 emissions and the resulting global warming show no signs of slowing (Figure 1).

Wake up call, yes, wake up call.

AND….FADE TO BLACK

Roger Ebert, probably the best known movie review person in the whole-wide world, and most-likely the most adored, died yesterday at age 70.

He’d been suffering from cancer for years, thought he’d beaten it, but only on Monday revealed the shit had returned, and then quickly passed. And like his beloved films, had a simple, but simple, but dramatic finish: “We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away. No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition,” his wife, Chaz Ebert, said in a statement Thursday.
Ebert not only loved movies, but he was also a most-excellent writer.
He will be way-greatly missed, especially by a crazed movie-lover like me.