Darkly-thick overcast skies this Saturday morning on California’s north coast — rain and more rain on the schedule for this weekend, and maybe to even next Wednesday.

Big topic, though, ain’t the weather. Vin Scully with some of the play-by-play: “A little tremor in the ball park…I am not sure if the folks felt it, but we certainly felt it here.”
He’s describing in real-time the 5.1 earthquake that struck the LA area last night via the Angels/Dodgers game — and no major damage or injuries reported throughout the area. Odd how the situation of the ground makes severity of the shaker, as one would think an earthquake of that size in a place of nothing but concrete would do a shitload of damage.
Yet not, just a lot of people scared shit-less.

(Illustration found here).

We still have the top biggest quake for California this year with that 6.8 shaker earlier this month. And it, too, did little damage, other than to rattle nerves (and for me to get a new brace of flashlights — just in case).

And in reference to direct links of climate change also affecting/effecting the geological make-up of our planet, is a moment to stop — the World Wildlife Fund’s ‘Earth Hour,’ set for tonight.
Via the Guardian:

Now in its eighth year, the mass participation event to show support for environmental issues comes as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to launch its latest report in Japan on Monday, outlining how global warming will affect wildlife, food supplies, water and the weather.
“It’s fortuitous timing that as millions of people take part in WWF’s Earth Hour, the world’s leading scientists release the latest IPCC report, which highlights the various impacts of climate change,” said Colin Butfield, director of public engagement and campaigns at WWF-UK.
“The significance of these two events is massive.
“Climate change is the biggest environmental threat facing our planet – it’s real, it’s happening right now, and we need to act fast.”

The event is at 8:30 pm local time, with famous landmarks worldwide expected to take part, from New York’s Empire State building, to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, and to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, even to Russia’s Kremlin and Red Square in Moscow, will supposedly darken for the appointed hour.
Although with good intentions and hopefully a lot of participation, the event is symbolic only — nothing will actually be accomplished, and the earth continues to heat.
And concerning the above mentioned IPCC report, Forbes Tompkins, a meteorologist and research analyst with the World Resources Institute, concludes (via Salon):

For me it’s the clarity and confidence of climate change, of the impacts of climate change that are occurring.
The last report, in 2007, generally said regional effects of climate change were “emerging,” and now we can expect with this latest report that the impacts are already widespread, consequential and occurring on all continents, and across oceans.
So in a sense, in the past impacts of climate change were thought to be at our front doorstep.
Now they’ve pretty much taken up residence for the foreseeable future until we address the issue.

I think the earth needs way-more than an hour to recuperate.