Spring Weather - 2007

In Bloomington, Indiana - from March 9 - March 15 and from March 20 - March 31 - the high temperature was above 60 - with 13 days that were 70 degrees or above and 3 of those days that were 80 or above. The warm weather continued on until April 3 - when freezing lows returned. Except for the 11th (when it got up to 63) - we didn't have a day that was 60 or above until April 16th.

Officially - it got down to 24 during the cold spell - but it seemed to me that it got colder than that. I know that one day, at least, the forecast was for it to get down to 17.

What that meant for plants was that some bloomed far earlier than usual. On a lot of plants - the leaves came out and then died. Fruit trees were in bloom in March - and then it froze. Red buds have been blooming for 3 - 4 weeks - far longer then usual. Usually they bloom with the dogwood - but dogwoods just started coming into bloom last week.

What often happens in Spring is that the leaves on the trees start coming out and to look out across the landscape - the hills are a light green. This normally lasts only a few days and then the leaves come out more and the color becomes a deeper green. This year the the light green has stayed like that for a month. It seems very odd.

We don't know what will happen to the fruit trees.

I'm betting that it won't freeze again this season. I guess we'll see. (It used to be that the last freeze/frost date for around here was the 2nd week of May).

Earth Day

I spent most of today creating my herb garden. It's in the front yard - near the front door.

I had tilled the area a couple weeks ago - today I broke up the soil - got rid of most of the dirt clods - refined the shape (it ended up a nice crescent shape) - added peat moss and such - and planted the herbs I bought yesterday at the farmer's market (and a few from the Owen County garden club) along with some lettuce seeds, various herb seeds, and a couple of tomato plants. Plus I moved 3 lavendar plants from the nearby garden across the sidewalk. I have 3 varieties of thyme and 3 of sage, and two kinds of basil, among other things.

I had taken a mini-class from an herbalist recently - so that inspired me to buy a calendula plant.

I had been reluctant to dig into the front yard - but since I was returning a large part of the front yard to woods - it seemed like less of an issue. And the less grass the better. It's a good sunny spot for herbs.

Plus when it comes to getting ones food locally - it doesn't get any more local than your own yard.

I still need to look into getting a sod cutter to cut away the sod from around the orchard trees.

After working - I sat down and read some of the New York Times headlines. One article - How the Worm Turns - seemed esp. appropriate. I met a lot of worms today. I tried to save them for the garden as I was breaking up the sod. There would often be 2 or three in a small clump. The usual variety was pinkish - but there were some brown ones and one little black one. Maybe the black on is rare?

I'll have to remember to look for bats in the shagbark hickory trees - I heard there was a federally endangered variety that likes to live in them.

Other nature news revolves around our ponds. My husband and I installed a couple of small ponds last summer (I did the planning and moved the rocks into place). Since I had discovered what toad eggs are like at the pond of a friend last month - when I saw the curly strips of black dots - I knew what they were. (We may have some frog eggs, as well. I'm not sure about that.) And yesterday we saw the very young toads swimming around. At least that's what I I think they are. They look like giant sperm.

In other Earth Day news, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David went on a "Stop Global Warming College Tour" that ended up today at George Washington University where they were joined by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Carole King, Bobby Kennedy Jr. and David's husband, Larry David.

Last night Sheryl Crow and Laurie David were at the White House Correspondents Dinner. They reported on Huffingtonpost:

"The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove.... We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.

We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.

We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China's lead?)"

Astronauts Recall View of Earth

The rarest view in humanity -- Earth from afar -- moves many of the lucky few observers to tears and gives them a new appreciation of that blue marble we all call home.

When astronauts return from space, what they talk about isn't the brute force of the rocket launch or the exhilaration of zero gravity. It's the view.

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"It was the only color we could see in the universe. ... "We're living on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignificant galaxy. And basically this it for humans. It strikes me that it's a shame that we're squabbling over oil and borders."
--Bill Anders, Apollo 8, whose photos of Earth became famous.
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"It's hard to appreciate the Earth when you're down right upon it because it's so huge.
"It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away from it, (an idea of) how insignificant we are, how fragile we are, and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy the sky and the trees and the water ... It's something that many people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within the environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till I left it."
--Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 and 13.
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"The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes.
"If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth...."
--Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year to the international space station.
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"Up in space when you see a sunset or sunrise, the light is coming to you from the sun through that little shell of the Earth's atmosphere and back out to the spacecraft you're in. The atmosphere acts like a prism. So for a short period of time you see not only the reds, oranges and yellows, the luminous quality like you see on Earth, but you see the whole spectrum red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-violet.
"You come back impressed, once you've been up there, with how thin our little atmosphere is that supports all life here on Earth. So if we foul it up, there's no coming back from something like that."
--John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth (1962) and former U.S. senator.
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"I think you can't go to space and not be changed, in many ways ....
"All of the teachings of the Bible that talk about the creator and his creation take on new meaning when you can view the details of the Earth from that perspective. So it didn't change my faith per se, the content of it, but it just enhanced it, it made it even more real."
--Jeff Williams, spent 6 months on the space station and set a record for most Earth photos taken.
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"Earth has gone through great transitions and volcanic impacts and all sorts of traumatic things. But it has survived ... I'm not referring to human conflicts. I'm referring to the physical appearance of the Earth at a great distance. That it generally is mostly very peaceful (when) looked at from a distance."
--Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon.
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"I see the deep black of space and this just brilliantly gorgeous blue and white arc of the earth and totally unconsciously, not at all able to help myself, I said, 'Wow, look at that.'"
--Kathy Sullivan, first American woman to spacewalk, recalling what she said when she saw Earth in 1984.
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"...From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse of space. It gave me the feeling of really wanting us all to take care of the Earth. I got more of a sense of Earth as home, a place where we live. And of course you want to take care of your home. You want it clean. You want it safe."
--Winston Scott, two-time shuttle astronaut who wrote a book, "Reflections From Earth Orbit."
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"You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday. ... We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don't think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I've had traveling in space."
--Eileen Collins, first female space shuttle commander.
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"You can see what a small little atmosphere is protecting us.
"You realize there's not much protecting this planet particularly when you see the view from the side. That's something I'd like to share with everybody so people would realize we need to protect it."
--Sunita Williams, who has been living on the international space station since Dec. 11, 2006.

"Seal Killers Stopped at Sea"

By LINDSAY HAMILTON / posted at ABCnews

Mother Nature has put a cold stop on one of Canada's most controversial hunts.

Two weeks after the start of Newfoundland and Labrador's annual seal hunt, more than 100 vessels became stuck in heavy ice and at least 60 remained immobilized.

Crews face food, water and fuel shortages as they wait for the ice to break up.

The Canadian coast guard has been resupplying stranded boats, and the crews in the greatest danger have been airlifted to safety.

"In some cases, there are vessels at risk of sinking once the ice frees up because of the hull damage sustained," said Capt. Windross Banton, from aboard his coast guard icebreaker vessel.

The boats became trapped when winds pushed ice inland toward the coast. Banton said this is the worst he's ever seen the ice.

For the seal hunters, who fish during other times of the year, it means lost profits and costly repairs. Banton estimates some will lose up to $250,000.

There have been reforms of the seal hunt since the first pictures of white seal pups being clubbed to death horrified the public. Juvenile seals are no longer taken and there are rules ensuring the seals are dead when they are skinned. Canada's government says the hunt is now humane.

But opposition has not ended, and critics say the stranded fishermen represent a new reason to shut down the hunt...

This year, the Canadian government reduced the seal quota to 270,000, a decrease of about 20 percent, because melting ice has caused an increasing number of sea pups to drown.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador says the industry is worth over $55 million a year, and the income from sealing can account for 25 to 35 percent of a fisherman's annual income.

Climate change at top of world agenda, Annan says

Source: Reuters

The environment and climate change top the list of challenges for the international community and failing to face them could ruin development, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday.

"If we do not get the climate under control, if we do not confront the challenges of the environment, every other effort we are making can be washed aside," Annan told journalists after addressing the Norwegian Labour Party.

Scientists widely say human activity, especially emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, is warming the Earth's climate.

They say it poses risks of rising sea levels, more floods, droughts and expanding deserts that could displace millions of people and eventually cause economic, political and humanitarian crises.

Annan, who stepped down at the end of 2006 after 10 years at the helm of the United Nations, said the environment would be "the major constraint" on growth and development globally.

"We cannot continuing consuming the resources of the world as if there were no tomorrow, as if there were no future generations coming after us," he said.

He also stressed the need for multilateral cooperation.

"All the major challenges that we face today cannot be handled by one country, however powerful that country is," he said. "It does require international cooperation."

He said that also applied to such areas as the fight against infectious diseases, environmental degradation, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and organised international crime.

Last year, while still U.N. chief, Annan said there was a "frightening lack of leadership" in combating global warming and urged 189 nations at climate talks in Nairobi to cut greenhouse gas emissions and join the Kyoto Protocol.

The age of consumer-driven capitalism...

by Dave Lindorff / posted on Common Dreams

It wasn’t too long ago that the death of socialism, the triumph of capitalism and the end of history were being widely hailed.

What a difference a few years and a few fractions of a degree in world temperature change makes!

We may still be contemplating the end of history, but of a different sort. It is suddenly becoming painfully obvious that the pursuit of profit and the philosophy of growth for growth’s sake and of dog eat dog is about to kill us all off.

Now that it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the earth is headed for a global heat wave the likes of which hasn’t been seen in hundreds of thousands and perhaps tens of millions of years–the kind of killing heat that in the past has led to mass extinctions–it is ludicrous to talk about things like carbon trading and raising vehicle mileage standards.

We need a revolution in the way we human beings live and the way we treat each other.

There is no way that the world’s 6.5 billion people–and especially the 2 billion of them who live in wealthier societies–can continue to consume energy at even close to the level that we have been consuming it. There is no way we in the developed world can continue to live the way we have been living, in oversized houses, heated in winter and cooled in summer. There is no way in the northern hemisphere we can continue to have teakwood or mahogany-floored living rooms and eat strawberries in December.

There is no way that we can continue to squander trillions of dollars on war and military spending every year.

No way, that is, if we plan on leaving a livable world for our children and grandchildren.

The so-called “green” politicians who talk about instituting carbon-trading schemes, about driving hybrid automobiles, about buying fluorescent light bulbs, and about turning down the thermostat and wearing sweaters, are deceiving us or themselves.

None of this is going to save us.

What will save us is recognizing that the age of consumer-driven capitalism is over.

We either come up with a new way to organize society, in which production is based upon real needs, not upon manufactured needs, and in which scarce resources are made available to those who need them, not just to those who can afford them, or we will all be doomed–or at least our progeny...

Lower Great Lake Water Levels Affect Shipping

By Emily Fredrix - the Associated Press

When Fred Shusterich looks around the harbor on Lake Superior, he sees things he hasn't seen in years -- little islands poking out of the water.

Like many others connected to the shipping industry, Shusterich -- president of the coal supplier Midwest Energy Resources -- is concerned about the significance of those islands off the city of Superior in far northern Wisconsin.

"I think it may be another very poor year if this drought continues, as far as water levels," he said.

Now's the time when harbors along the Great Lakes -- Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie -- have thawed and shipping begins, carrying 10 percent of the country's waterborne cargo.

But excitement over the shipping season is being displaced by frustration over low water levels, which is forcing shippers to lighten their loads so they can move safely into harbors.

The lighter loads -- sometimes hundreds of tons per ship -- turn into headaches for suppliers that send their goods on vessels, shippers, and companies whose orders come up short.

Midwest Energy Resources, Shusterich's company, just sent out its first vessel of the season with a load just under 60,000 tons; a typical load is 62,000 tons, he said. He said the company will use more ships to carry cargo, and use rail and trucks when it can.

"When we're running at the levels we're running, it means you need more vessels to carry the same amount of cargo," he said. "But at some point you run out of vessels."

Shippers don't expect the situation to improve soon. A lack of ice cover on the lakes during the winter led to more evaporation. And they say the federal government can't keep up with the dredging of sand, silt and other debris from the harbors' bottoms -- a process that doesn't solve the problem of low water levels but does give ships room to carry more weight.

For every inch the lakes recede, ships must reduce their loads between 50 and 270 tons, said Glen Nekvasil, spokesman for the Lake Carriers' Association, a trade group for Great Lakes shippers.

At the end of last season, with waters particularly low on Lake Superior, ships lost about 8,000 tons per trip -- about 11 percent of their carrying capacity, he said.

"Every ton has an impact. These companies, they earn their living carrying cargo, so every lost ton of cargo is lost revenue," Nekvasil said.

Shipping is big business. Last year, a little more than 1 billion tons of goods such as iron ore, coal and limestone were waterborne in the U.S., he said. Shippers on the Great Lakes hauled 110 million tons of cargo, more than half of that iron ore.

In the late 1990s, shippers hauled as much as 125 million tons of cargo a year on the Great Lakes. Last year's numbers are at least partially due to the low water levels, but the steel industry -- which uses iron ore -- has been slow, too, Nekvasil said. The coal trade has been steady and the roughly 70 ships in the U.S. fleet sail regularly, he said.

Water levels have dropped for years, and the forecast isn't getting any better....

Grain exporter Chicago and Illinois River Marketing isn't waiting for the government to dredge its harbor in Milwaukee. Richard Blaylock, manager at the company's site, said the company spent $200,000 in two years to dredge its own spot off the Milwaukee Harbor...

The dwindling water levels mean a typical vessel carrying between 25,000 and 30,000 tons will have to reduce its load by 1,000 tons per trip, he said.

As ocean levels swell, an English coast crumbles

From the International Herald Tribune:

BECCLES, England: This winter a 50-foot-wide strip of Roger Middleditch's sugar beet field fell into the North Sea, his rich East Anglian lands reduced by a large fraction of their acreage. The adjacent potato field, once 23 acres, is now less than 3 - too small to plant at all, he said.

Each spring Middleditch, a tenant farmer on the vast Benacre Estate here, meets with its managers to recalculate his rent, depending on how much land has been eaten up by encroaching water. As he stood in a muddy field by the roaring sea one recent morning, he tried to estimate how close he dares to plant this season.

"We've lost so much these last few years," he said. "You plant, and by harvest it's fallen into the water."

Coastal erosion has been a fact of life here for a century, because the land under East Anglia is slowly sinking. But the erosion has never been as quick and cataclysmic as it has been in recent years - an effect of climate change and global warming, according to many scientists. To make matters worse for coastal farmers, the British government has stopped maintaining large parts of the network of seawalls that once protected the area.

Under a new policy that scientists have labelled "managed retreat," governments around the globe are concluding that it is not worth taxpayer money to fight every inevitable effect of climate change.

Land loss at Benacre "has accelerated dramatically," said Mark Venmore-Roland, the estate's manager. "At first it was like a chap losing his hair - bit by bit, so you'd get used to it. But last few years it's been really frightening."

With higher seas level and more vicious storms created by warming, he and Middleditch say, the coastal fields are rapidly disappearing, as the low cliffs on which the fields sit slip into the water in huge chunks.

A report this year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that rising seas will force 60 million people away from their coastal homes and jobs by the year 2080.

Another study, the Stern Report, released last December by the British government, projected hundreds of millions of "environmental refugees" by 2050. That category includes both people whose land is flooded off and those whose pastures are parched by drought...

"Farmers are on the front lines of climate change. They're out there. It's affecting their business," said Tanya Olmeda-Hodge of the Country Landowners Association...

Author Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

__________________________________________
In books such as "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle," and "Hocus Pocus," Kurt Vonnegut mixed the bitter and funny with a touch of the profound..."He was sort of like nobody else," said fellow author Gore Vidal. "Kurt was never dull."

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view.

He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"He was a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important," said Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, a liberal magazine based in Chicago that featured Vonnegut articles.

Some of Vonnegut's books were banned and burned for suspected obscenity. He took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The American Humanist Association, which promotes individual freedom, rational thought and scientific skepticism, made him its honorary president.

Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet.

"I like to say that the 51st state is the state of denial," he told The Associated Press in 2005. "It's as though a huge comet were heading for us and nobody wants to talk about it. We're just about to run out of petroleum and there's nothing to replace it."...
__________________________________________

Kurt Vonnegut’s novels
• “Player Piano,” 1952
• “The Sirens of Titan,” 1959
• “Mother Night,” 1962
• “Cat's Cradle,” 1963
• “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” 1965
• “Slaughterhouse-Five,” 1969
• “Breakfast of Champions,” 1973.
• “Slapstick,” 1976
• “Jailbird,” 1979 .
• “Deadeye Dick,” 1983
• “Galápagos,” 1985
• “Bluebeard,” 1988
• “Hocus Pocus,” 1990
• “Three Complete Novels,” 1995
• “Timequake,” 1997

Source: “Contemporary Novel-
ists”

-- Compiled by (Indianapolis) Star library
__________________________________________

Mr. Vonnegut was one spark of light that originated in Indianapolis (my hometown). As painful as life may have been for him, at times, he was one who did make the most of it. And his writings will continue to provoke and inspire.

Galapagos Islands 'facing crisis'

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has declared the Galapagos Islands, home to dozens of endangered species, at risk and a national priority for action.

...The islands, located some 1,000km (620 miles) off Ecuador's mainland, are home to an array of species, including giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies and marine iguanas.

About 20,000 people, working mainly in fishing and tourism, also live there.

The Galapagos Islands inspired naturalist Charles Darwin and helped him develop his theory of evolution.

Last month, several rangers of the ecological reserve in the islands clashed with members of the Ecuadorean Armed Forces over what the rangers say was illegal fishing in protected waters.

The incident provoked an outcry in Ecuador as it illustrated for many the practices which are damaging the site.

Mr Correa announced that a number of military officials had been suspended pending an investigation.

However, ecologists say the problems in the Galapagos run much deeper than the government has acknowledged.

They fear that a rapid increase in the human population and the gradual introduction of external species of flora and fauna are threatening the entire ecosystem on the islands.

Representatives of the UN's scientific, educational and cultural body, Unesco, have travelled to its research station on the Galapagos to inspect the state of conservation there.

Last month, a senior Unesco official warned of threats to the "fragile and delicate" ecology of the Galapagos.

"Stop shopping ... or the planet will go pop"

...Porritt, chairman of the government's Sustainable Development Commission, has concluded that consumerism is central to the threat facing the planet, cannibalising its natural resources and producing the carbon dioxide emissions which result in climate change.

In a film for Channel Five, he points out that Britons throw away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks, with 100 million tonnes of waste pouring into the country's 12,000 landfill sites every year. If all six billion people in the world were to consume at the same level, we would need two new Earths to supply all the energy, soil, water and raw materials required.

'I think capitalism is patently unable to go on growing the size of the consumer economy for any more people in the world today because levels of consumption are already undermining life support systems on which we depend - so if we do it for any more people, the planet will go pop,' Porritt told The Observer. 'So in a way we don't have a choice about this: we've got to rethink the basic premise behind capitalism to make it deliver the goods. In the long run, when you really look at what happens on a planet with nine billion people and really serious constraints on the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we can emit, it's almost inevitable we will learn to have more elegant, satisfying lives, consuming less. I can't see any way out of that in the long run.'

Porritt, co-founder of Forum For The Future, Britain's leading sustainable development charity, believes that consumerism has taken over our lives almost unnoticed. 'Shopping has become a recreational activity,' he continued. 'There's a lot of evidence that people really do see shopping now as an amenity pastime. We're well beyond the time where shopping was just a way of transacting what you needed in life. It's now all about identity and status and recreation and companionship, even about meaning in people's lives. There's always been a "keeping up with the Joneses" type thing, but it's now almost universalised and there is a sense of buying to be more like something or to get the image of somebody, particularly with clothes or branded goods, where there's very much that sense of, "If I buy something with this name on it, maybe a little bit of the magic of that name will rub off on me and I'll be a better person", whereas we all know you're exactly the same person just waiting to go out and make your next branded purchase.'...

"Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands & a Way of Life"

Shyamal Mandal lives at the edge of ruin.

In front of his small mud house lies the wreckage of what was once his village on this fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.

Only a handful of families still hang on so close to the water, and those that do are surrounded by reminders of inexorable destruction: an abandoned half-broken canoe, a coconut palm teetering on a cliff, the gouged-out remnants of a family’s fish pond.

All that stands between Mr. Mandal’s home and the water is a rudimentary mud embankment, and there is no telling, he confessed, when it, too, may fall away. “What will happen next, we don’t know,” he said, summing up his only certainty.

The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to a confluence of disasters, natural and human, not least the rising sea. The rivers that pour down from the Himalayas and empty into the bay have swelled and shifted in recent decades, placing this and the rest of the delicate islands known as the Sundarbans in the mouth of daily danger.

Certainly nature would have forced these islands to shift size and shape, drowning some, giving rise to others. But there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable.

A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely.

More than 600 families have been displaced, according to local government authorities. Fields and ponds have been submerged. Ghoramara alone has shrunk to less than two square miles, about half of its size in 1969, Mr. Hazra’s study concluded. Two other islands have vanished entirely.

The Sundarbans are among the world’s largest collection of river delta islands. In geological terms they are young and still under formation, cut by an intricate network of streams and tributaries that straddle the border between India and Bangladesh. Ever since the British settled them 150 years ago in pursuit of timber, the mangroves have been steadily depleted — half of the islands have lost their forest cover — and the population has grown....

"The Psychology Behind George W. Bush's Decision-Making"

By John P. Briggs, M.D. and JP Briggs II, Ph.D. / posted on Scoop

When we feel inadequate about some aspect of our lives, we work to submerge those feelings with compensations and defenses. Evidence is that in the case of George W. Bush, deep feelings of inadequacy and powerful defensive behaviors employed to submerge them and cover them up cripple the decision-making process he needs for his duties as president.

The dynamics of the president's cover-up involve a vicious psychological paradox: because he secretly anticipates the humiliating failure he has experienced all his life, he behaves in ways that ensure that he will fail. He makes hasty, risky, ill-informed decisions in which he relies on his defenses rather than judgment. When the decisions go bad, they reconfirm his inner feelings of incompetence and heighten his fear of being "found out." The feedback loop forces him into an ever deeper "state of denial" about the decisions and an ever-renewed tendency to make more flawed decisions.

If this dynamic is close to correct, then keeping the secret of his feelings of inadequacy has become a matter of life and death for the president. The stakes for him are higher than we can imagine because, by becoming president, he raised his expectations for the success he has sought for so long (the final escape from this secret fear), and he has inflated his worst fear to its grandest scale. He is a man working with all his resources to keep his sense of himself afloat--and he is in danger of drowning... (big snip)

Here, however, we offer no diagnosis, and these are the reasons. Persons sometimes feel reassured by a diagnosis because it lets them feel they have a condition that can be dealt with. When mental health professionals try to diagnose celebrities, however, the effort can seem like name calling. In practice, diagnoses help the professional formulate a treatment plan. In this case, of course, no treatment is plausible. We believe that to a large extent, a president's psychology and his inner secrets are his or her own business, except in one important area. That is area covered by the question, "Does the psychology of this individual interfere with his or her ability to make sound decisions in the best interest of the nation?" Recent history has certainly been witness to presidents with psychologies that have damaged their historical legacies. Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon come to mind. But in neither case was the very ability to make sound decisions compromised to the extent we believe it is with this president.

From many accounts one can conclude that Bush's decision-making process is a failed process; in an important sense, it is no process at all...

How does his incompetence arise? It arises out of decisions made with sketchy information. It arises out of decisions made in angry rebellion because he is trying to show decisiveness to mask his ambivalence. His incompetence comes from feeling so much anxiety about his ability to grasp the alternatives on which a decision must be based that he doesn't even consider alternatives. His incompetence comes from polarized behavior. (Though he worried that the country might face another terrorist attack, he first resisted the creation of Homeland Security and then under funded it and staffed it with political hacks; so when Katrina and Rita hit, the nation was unprepared.) His incompetence comes from the intellectual laziness and slackness that developed because he always had a safety net that protected him from the consequences of any seriously inadequate behavior and decisions. His incompetence comes from the willingness of his "gut" to favor the drama of the most reckless and grandiose options in order to beat back feelings of failure...

"Was Rationality Banned From American Politics?"

From Prof. Randy Salzman at Global Politician

Before American lawmakers took to finding cash in their freezers and homosexual dreams in their pages, a 1990 survey found that only 12 percent of governmental votes used rational analysis as a key factor. Not “the” key factor, but “a” key factor. Yet since then, political irrationality has reached for new heights.

Consider that over the past year California sued all Big Six Automakers for selling “public nuisances,” Louisiana decided that raising houses three feet is enough to solve hurricane issues in houses 10 feet below sea level and Virginia excluded higher gasoline taxes – the only proven remedy -- as any potential tool for fighting congestion.

And, now, Florida tops (or bottoms?) us all.

To assure growth continues in hurricane alley, Florida’s legislature voted to lower insurance premiums on coastal properties and promised $32 billion IF a hurricane hits South Florida.

Since the state has less than $1 billion set aside for the next catastrophe and the state insurance agency has twice before run out of money, the plan is, obviously, to bounce the issue to Uncle Sam when the next hurricane arrives.

That fits, of course. Uncle Sam, remember, provided $110 billion to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina without demanding that houses are at least built above sea level.

Where is it written that all American policies must be stupid?

... Every single member of all legislative bodies KNOWS that a city or state can’t build its way out of congestion -- it’s been documented for over a decade that building more roads soon worsens all problems. And every single legislator KNOWS that cars produce, not just congestion, but America’s highest-percentage of greenhouse gas and burn the most of the ever-dwindling international supplies of oil.

Yet the debate in Washington (in Tallahassee, in Sacramento, in Richmond) goes on as if there’s no connection between what they do there and the future. It goes on as if there’s some kind of magic pill that some great worldwide dictator can force down somebody else’s throats to solve Peak Oil and Global Warming at the last minute...

It's a wild, wild state of warming

From the Detroit Free Press:

Phil Myers still remembers the night in 1985 when he saw a possum crossing the path of his headlights near the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

"I was absolutely thrilled," said Myers, who saw the animal while driving in Wilderness State Park.

Not many people get so excited about a lowly possum.

But Myers is a biologist who studies the critters and had never seen one that far north. Scientific collections dating to 1857 showed that possums were rare in northern Michigan. The creatures, common in the southeastern United States, evolved in the tropics and don't do well in brutal winters.

Those that survive lose the tips of their ears and tails to frostbite. But research shows that starting around 1980 -- as winters got warmer -- possums began a steady trek north.

The possum is among many Michigan species, from flying squirrels to ticks to birds, that have changed their behavior in response to warmer temperatures, especially on winter and spring nights, over the past 25 years.

Forget predictions about melting polar caps and rising sea levels, say Michigan and Great Lakes region scientists: If you want evidence of global warming, it's right here, right now.

In some cases, new species are moving into Michigan, bringing diseases with them. In others, the shift is altering the ecosystem's delicate balance. In some areas, creatures have disappeared.

Usually cautious scientists are using words like "dramatic" and "startling" to describe the changes...

"Hundreds of species have already changed their ranges and ecosystems have been disrupted," said Rosina Bierbaum, dean of U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment and former head of the U.S. delegation of the global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

On Friday, the IPCC released a report on warming-linked change in species around the globe. For example:

• In Vermont, sap from sugar maple trees is rising as much as a month earlier than it did 40 years ago, apparently triggered by warmer winters. The season for collecting sap is shorter, causing losses for the state's maple sugar and syrup industry. In Michigan, some maple syrup farmers report similar complaints, although no systematic studies of the subject have been done in the state.

• Some species of Central American frogs have disappeared because warmer nighttime temperatures pushed them to higher, cooler places, where they encountered a killer fungus.

• Disease-carrying ticks have moved into once-chilly Sweden, pestering humans and animals.

• Some bird species are migrating earlier and moving farther north. Because of warming, scientists theorize that in the next century, the Baltimore oriole may end up well north of Maryland, where it is the state bird.

The ranges of some Michigan trees, frogs, birds, insects and mammals are expected to change, too. Some already have...

It's not the ravages of memory that make people 40 and older think winters were harsher when they were kids. They were harsher then.

Today, Michigan has shorter, milder winters than it used to, said Jeff Andresen, the state climatologist and a professor at Michigan State University. Since 1980, average statewide temperatures have increased 2 degrees.

Most of the change is in winter and spring night temperatures, which have risen 3 to 5 degrees. Although the numbers are still within the range of natural variation, what has happened in Michigan matches changes globally. Researchers say they believe carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have led to the temperature change.

Andresen has other startling facts. From the 1850s to the 1970s, Grand Traverse Bay's surface froze an average of eight years each decade. Since the 1970s, the number has dropped sharply to three times per decade. Satellites show ice cover on the Great Lakes also dropped precipitously from 1973 to 2003, Andresen said.

Plant, animal and winged species sensitive to temperature have reacted. The life cycle of the tart cherry, one of Michigan's most popular products, follows temperatures. In Berrien County, cherries began ripening as many as 10 days earlier starting around 1980, Andresen said.

Among some creatures, startling changes have occurred in the past decade. The Lone Star tick, a southern pest that can carry the bacterial disease tularemia, used to be found in Tennessee, Texas and Florida. But now the ticks have established themselves along Lake Michigan.

"This has happened in the past 10 years or so," said Ned Walker, a professor of entomology at MSU. In the same time frame, a type of mosquito common in the southeastern United States, the psorophora ferox, has arrived in Michigan, Walker said.
The aggressive mosquito can carry the West Nile virus.

"Now, it has really quite dramatically shown up all over lower Michigan, as far north as Grand Rapids and east to Saginaw Bay," Walker said of the mosquito. He said he believes milder weather has allowed it to survive winters.

"It heralds the possibility of invasive species occurring in areas where winters are usually too harsh," he said.

Another tick, Ixodes dentatus, which is thought to carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, has arrived.

"We first found it in Kalamazoo, way out of its range," Walker said. "Now it's spread all over. It's very common on birds and rabbits."

Scientific literature from just a decade ago said the tick lived in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. "I speculate it is because of milder weather allowing it to overwinter," Walker said...

Biologist Myers has watched big changes among the small mammals -- mice, chipmunks and flying squirrels -- that he studies at U-M's biological station on Douglas Lake, near Pellston. Warming temperatures have allowed the southern, cold-sensitive version of each species to push north, displacing their cold-adapted cousins. The cold weather species' numbers have dropped sharply and in some places, they have become extinct, Myers found.

"The very fabric of the small mammal community has changed," he said.

In the Upper Peninsula, tiny woodland deer mice used to prevail over their warmer-weather relations, white-footed mice. In the 1930s, the white-footed mouse was found only in Menominee County, near Wisconsin. Since about 1980, white-footed mice have hotfooted it all across the UP, and the number of woodland mice has shrunk.

Myers has looked at many causes, including their habitat and food, and said he believes warmer temperatures are the cause...

Root is a lead author of the report that was issued Friday. She said bird-watchers have kept good records in Michigan. In Germfask in the east-central UP, records show that in 1970, the sandhill crane first arrived April 29. By 1995, it was a month earlier. Mourning doves arrived there on May 30 in 1965 and on March 1 by 1995.

An analysis of more than 100 studies on different species shows widespread changes across the globe already...

Root's analysis shows that above the 45th parallel, a line that crosses Michigan from Suttons Bay in the west to Alpena in the east, spring events like blooming and migration are coming two weeks earlier than they had. Below that line, the change is a week earlier.

Not all species react to temperature. Some mate or bloom based on the length of the day, which hasn't changed. That means two species that depend on each other -- like predators and their prey or flowers and their pollinators -- could fall out of sync. In the Midwest, many bird species will disappear this century. Expect fewer warblers and more outbreaks of forest pests they eat, such as spruce budworms...