113

Seriously... 113 degrees today in L.A. -- Hottest day ever in 130 years of record keeping!  And the temp may have been even higher, but the thermometer broke at 113!  Can you say Al Gore?

In 1993, I made this book required reading for a paper I was having my students at USC complete.  It struck me then as a well-argued wake up call.  When Gore ran for president, I was horrified by the criminal way in which that election was stolen from him by Bush, Jr. and spent 8 years regretting that Gore was not in that position -- for a multitude of reasons.  But, I was heartened that Gore returned to his first and most important cause -- environmental issues.  When his movie and book came out:  Inconvenient Truth, I made them required reading for my current, most important students... my daughters.  We baked and sweat through our day long activities down in town today and I thought about how we'll manage when it hits 120 degrees.

I follow Gore's Blog and his entry today was no surprise:
“Record-breaking summer temperatures and the warmest year to date in 131 years are wreaking havoc on the global environment, say climate scientists.”

“The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, is about to report near-record loss of sea ice this summer, and modelers say total ice volume is at a record low. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued warnings about coral bleaching throughout the Caribbean, a problem exacerbated by high water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.”

“According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the first 8 months of 2010 is the warmest such January-to-August period in climate records stretching back 131 years. This period was nearly 0.7 degrees C warmer than the average temperature from 1951 to 1980. (NOAA announced roughly the same finding today, using many of the same temperature stations but a different analysis method.) Scorching summer temperatures set records across the United States, and nighttime temperatures hit record highs in 37 U.S. states this summer, the Natural Resources Defense Council will announce in a new report tomorrow.”

What will we tell our kids? How bad do things have to get before the ridiculous global warming naysayers, who either can't understand simple scientific research or refuse to stop protecting their personal interests above all else, get scared?


I've always thought the slogan "Save the Planet" was misleading.  How about "Save the People!"  Maybe then people will get it!  Let's emphasize that the planet will do just fine, it's us who should be worried!