Postcard from the chaparral

Inspired by a nice layout of red poppies in fair England on the Postcards From K site, I thought I would share these pictures of flowers I took amongst the chaparral forest. I suspect many folks don’t think of flowers in the hot, dry chaparral with its manzanita, chamise, and toyon, but they are thereContinue reading “Postcard from the chaparral”

Let’s not gush about our clean energy options

Estimates regarding the rate of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil blowout get spewier with each succeeding news cycle. The mess being made requires that we Americans consider what we are willing to pay—economically and environmentally— for energy. I didn’t see President Obama’s live televised remarks to the nation on the BP oil spill but watched itContinue reading “Let’s not gush about our clean energy options”

BP oil spill: A teachable moment?

“I want to really challenge the idea that we can’t move into renewable energy sources a lot faster. We put a man on the moon pretty fast…What is really sad now is that Obama is not using this moment as a teachable moment to bring the country together.” – Arianna Huffington (on KCRW’s Left, Right,Continue reading “BP oil spill: A teachable moment?”

Matt Ridley – A Rational Optimist

Last April I posted about how the earth had improved since the first Earth Day. At the end of the post is a poll about whether, after reading the post, the reader was optimistic, pessimistic, or ambivalent about the future. Overwhelmingly, people were (and apparently, are) pessimistic about the future of the earth. Matt Ridley,Continue reading “Matt Ridley – A Rational Optimist”