In 2015, artist Helen Glazer spent seven weeks exploring the Antarctic wilderness with her camera, studying ice formations and the complex interactions between wind, water and sun that sculpt the region’s frozen landscape. Her resulting exhibition of photographs and sculpture, entitled “Walking in Antarctica,” is now on view at Goucher College’s Rosenberg Gallery through Dec. 18.
If you have school-aged children, you know that it’s almost report card time. Report cards offer parents a snapshot of your child’s bright spots, but also spell-out those “areas of challenge.”
Another important report card was quietly posted three years ago by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This fifth report card spelled out not if man-made climate change is here, but by how much.
Though most of us have yet to review Planet Earth’s report card – it’s now a readable slideshow – the positive news is that our world’s leaders, major corporations, U.S. federal, state and city governments, have all read the IPCC’s 5th climate report.
And they’re finally acting on it. Climate progress is accelerating. Read this important report card and learn what will be required to make our legacy be one of climate action, not denial.
Yes. Here’s why.
Obama’s final Clean Power Plan launched this week like a consumer product. It was great to see Mother Nature and her amazing product, our environment, get the respect she deserves. The White House had their ducks-in-a-row: a live announcement, clever social media and marketing support, and a well-scripted list of health, economic and environmental benefits. The Clean Power Plan (CPP) is significant, though it’s one effort on a long list of Obama greenhouse gas emission reductions. With political will, new technologies, and a worldwide shift to sustainable energy, we may possibly keep global warming to 2℃, and not cook ourselves to death.
Have you ever looked back at a situation and wished you’d had some key information? Those little bits of knowledge that would probably have led to a different decision?
In the hopes of sharing some key info and fending off future regret, you might be interested in climate change’s two critical numbers: 450 and 7. Paying attention to these two numbers and knowing their future impact on your life may influence decisions you make today, and possibly drive better outcomes tomorrow.
The Obama administration just released its third National Climate Assessment on the likely effects of climate change across the United States, and in case you were wondering, it’s not pretty. The report is extensive. Here’s what Maryland can look forward to (and to a degree is already happening):
+ More smog. This is dangerous particularly to children and other vulnerable populations.
+ More downpours. We’ve seen their apparent effect on aging infrastructure!
+ More heatwaves. Specifically, “more than 60 more days of temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-century than were normal in the 1990s.”
Meteorologist Tony Pann doesn’t believe in climate change, but you wouldn’t know that if you only watch him on WBAL-TV, because he doesn’t have much occasion to bring it up. He has, however, discussed it on his blog at Examiner.com, and he’s argued with other local meteorologists about the validity of climate change over social media, which was then covered by the Baltimore Sun and City Paper.
Not sure if this is a joke or not, but some people in Ohio are taking Punxsutawney Phil’s spring prediction a little too seriously. Because the furry guy predicted an early spring, and it is now snowing, there is a cry of outrage coming from Cincinnati. Mike Gmoser wrote an “official looking” indictment accusing Phil of wrongly predicting the weather. Phil will apparently be charged with “misrepresentation of spring, which constitutes a felony.”
I’m sort of surprised none of the local news stations have put much information on their websites about this upcoming snowstorm, “Saturn,” which is predicted to bring actual, sticking white stuff to Baltimore mid-week. It is rumored to be heading our way Tuesday…snowballing us Wednesday through Thursday (yay). The Weather Channel has said “70 percent chance” of “significant snowfall” to hit the Baltimore-Washington area, but as The Baltimore Sun points out, it’s hard as yet to gauge accumulation (hence, the lack of hysteria – fair enough). No, wait, not fair!
Growing up in Greektown, when Christmas break came around, all the kids in the neighborhood already had their summer and fall clothes packed away and were outside playing in their big puffy jackets. We would wear our pajamas inside out because it meant snow would come; most times it did.
