Fires in NorCal

One of my former students, Austin, just told me about his summer. He studied abroad in Europe for the months of June and July. Austin's parents went over to visit him at the end of his stay there. They live in Redding, CA, and visited him in Europe for about a week. While they were there, their house in Redding burned down.

I didn't know what to say. What they must be going through... My student told me that the fire moved so fast that his neighbors weren't even evacuated and one house started catching fire as the residents were taking naps! The fire hopped over a river and blasted through their neighborhood. Austin said that he's glad his family wasn't there, because the fire was so dangerous and so fast-moving. He feels lucky that everyone is still alive.

The extra heat trapped in our atmosphere is causing more water to evaporate, causing stronger droughts and higher fire danger. With more evaporated water in the air being transferred eastward, the rainstorms downstream are stronger as well. I expect this subject will be addressed quite thoroughly in our Climate Reality training next week. This story is personal. We need people to see connections like this.

Carr fire in Redding

Rise 4 Climate RSVP

Just sent in my RSVP for next month's Rise for Climate march.
Come and join us.

Pre-Training Meeting

Scenes from the meeting of San Diego people who will attend the Climate Reality Leadership Training in Los Angeles next week. August 19 at Trilogy Sanctuary, La Jolla. The San Diego City Chapter and the San Diego North County chapters are just getting started and will meet once or twice a month or so. One goal is to create a coalition of climate groups in San Diego. Most of the attendees are already involved in one or more environmental organizations. Our first September gathering will be the Rise for Climate March in San Diego, September 8, 2018.

Climate Reality, Los Angeles 2018

I have been accepted to attend the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Los Angeles next month.  The training in Chicago, 2013, was excellent and I am looking forward to being re-energized in my efforts to help people understand what's happening as the Earth changes so rapidly.

When Dave Keeling hired me in 1985 soon after my move to San Diego, carbon dioxide was at about 345 ppm, and now it's over 400 ppm (0.04%).  Strange that a tiny bit more of this relatively harmless gas can make a difference, but the physics are solid and climate model predictions from my time at SIO are turning out to be correct.  I plan to post more about climate change here on this blog.  Stay tuned.