Heat Wave

It's been a hot month.  And a humid one.  And I think a rainy one, but that's my impression without seeing the actual data.  What rain we have experienced has been of a soaking type.  

I've stayed indoors more than I might have liked.  Really haven't gone fishing, though a few rods remain in my trunk.  Went to beach once.  Went to State Fair.  And anticipate another day trip to my favorite coastal destination and to an amusement park with a water park component.  Not nearly as much gardening as I anticipated earlier this spring, though with a small green bean harvest.  And one outdoor dinner, but no sessions on my deck's antigravity lounger. And not been to the putting green at all.

Room AC in bedroom at moderately high intensity most nights.  Appreciate both the coolness and the white noise.  AC at home keeps me inside, AC in car keeps me on the move.  And the basement is naturally cool, so I have no excuse for not setting aside some sessions for making it more functional.

There remains some scientific inquisitiveness within me.  The earth has gotten warmer, though loss of glaciers, ice caps, and feeding challenges to the polar bears are better evidence of this than how dependent I have become on AC.  It was certainly hot in the summer months those years I lived in the Midwest.  This summer, while hotter than my recollection of previous summers, probably is not a good enough justification to merge it with other political stances.  Some personal or local adaptation is a better option for me.  It may not be for people whose livelihood forces them outdoors, the farmers, the construction crews, the landscapers, park rangers, and our sanitation crews.  Whatever the cause, whether a consequence of our industrial success or a cycle of nature, we don't really have the ability to make the globe cooler, at least not by next summer when the weather services will make another set of comparison measurements.  We may just need to limit exposure for the people who cannot find shelter in the AC as easily as I can.

Disappointing Webinar

A good friend traceable to the Year Gimel hosts a project to promote the accuracy and meaning of scientific studies to a largely non-scientist public.  For the most part, science is the ultimate revelation of what you see is what you get, but it is open to its vagaries, not yet figured out, and adaptation to various non-science agendas from political policies to promoting drugs for doctors to prescribe.  And there have certainly been scientific frauds where real scientists alter results to look more important than they really are for secondary gain, usually promotion in the scientific workplace.  We can watch anti-vaxxers on TV or You Tube.  We have elected officials downplaying global warming, a form of Russian Roulette with our descendants and not that much benefit for us now.  Public visionaries don't seem to have the value that they once did, at least in America.

My friend pointed me to a Webinar on Climate Change, for which he and his organization take a great interest, one conducted by a reputable organization called the Union of Concerned Scientists.  There being no tuition for this and it occurring on an afternoon not otherwise occupied by appointments, I signed up and signed in at the appointed time.  My presence lasted 15 minutes.  I closed the Adobe connecting program, proceeded to my car and went shopping instead. 

Instead of discussing anything that required a modicum of scientific background, or even interest, they were discussing a piece of doomed legislation when what they really need is regime change.  There is science and there is agenda.  Impediments to science, be they elected officials or the shills with PhD's that sign aboard for career gain, need to be looked at as impediments to overcome.

The best way to do this is with voters figuring out that devaluing science is just one more of the global depravity that we watch on our daily screens.  Banging your shoe on the table with a "Nyet" Khruschev style doesn't bring credibility to the realities of global warming and its consequences or the best scientific evidence that causes our most astute scientists to think that way.  Creating alliances with others that have their own reasons for unseating some of our elected officials might. 

And we have rogue scientists.  PhD's who promote falsehood for personal gain are worthy of blackballing from the scientific community.  Assembling a catalog of these people and making an effort that they are unwelcome in any respectable scientific workplace might be a better project for ethical scientists to implement.

Science goes forward with objectivity and planning.  This seminar had neither.