The air is thick with climate change

Another piece of the puzzle, another bit of evidence to support the truth. The Earth is not only getting warmer, but more humid — and the global warming thesis just gets stronger and stronger.

Climate scientists have now seen the man-made fingerprint of global warming on 10 different aspects of Earth’s environment: surface temperatures, humidity, water vapor over the oceans, barometric pressure, total precipitation, wildfires, change in species of plants in animals, water run-off, temperatures in the upper atmosphere, and heat content in the world’s oceans.

“This story does now fit together; there are now no loose ends,” said Ben Santer, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and author of the September study on moisture above the oceans. “The message is pretty compelling that natural causes alone just can’t cut it.”

Man is changing the climate and choking us all.

I know. Not a pretty picture, but that’s just the way it is.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Runner’s diary, Monday (in recovery)


Yes, I pulled it off. I finished the 35th annual LBI Commemorative 18-mile Run on Sunday, sprinting home (yes, I did) with a 3:33:25 (that’s three hours, 33 minutes and 25 seconds — or an 11:51 pace per mile), finishing 509 and making it back with about 15 minutes to spare before they closed the finish line.

I have to admit that there was much walking — way too much, to be honest — especially after the 10-mile mark. It was brutally hot and humid and I was dehydrated pretty early. I walked a little bit between mile eight and 10 and then a lot afterward. Paul Vaccarro, a 24-year-old trainer at the gym I go to, ran the race in 3:01:27 , while Mike Kokoszka, a 33-year-old friend (pictured with me above as we passed North 2nd Street in Surf City just shy of the marker for mile 10 — my wife, Annie, took the shot) who helped me get through the training, finished at 3:33:42. He actually ran a better race than I did for most of it and didn’t feel the need at the end to lay it on the line.

I think I was trying to atone for the miserable mood I had been in during the middle of the race. For a few miles — probably, 11 through 13 or so, when I let Mike take off ahead of me — I felt a bit sorry for myself and disappointed until I decided there was no shame in walking some. That’s when I caught Mike again and we set small goals and targets, which helped a lot. My legs were on fire by the end from the lactic acid build up and the muscles had tightened from walking too much. But we soldiered on.

Basically, we walked and ran on and off and somehow I found a little (very little) in the tank to finish with a sprint.

So, we did it. I can’t say I’d ever do it again — but then I won’t rule it out. I will just have to stay noncommittal on it and see what happens down the road.

I am sore today — mostly the lower back and my quads are barking with tightness — but I am hopeful I can get back on the road by the end of the week and begin looking ahead to the Viking 5K in South Brunswick in November.

And thanks to all the people who lined the street, cheering on the runners. It really helped during those moments when I felt pretty lousy.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Runner’s diary, Friday — countdown to Sunday

No running the last two days, and none planned for tomorrow. Let me legs rest and see what happens.

I did 10 minutes each yesterday on the rowing machine, the elliptical trainer and treadmill walking briskly, but no strain and I did about a half hour of stretching.

Today, nothing. Tonight, I’ll start with some carbs for dinner, maybe fruit and yogurt for breakfast tomorrow and then orzos, maybe some linguine for the other meals. I’ll also do a couple of long sets of stretches and get to bed early.

Two days and counting. Almost here.

As my friend Mike said today, “Let’s knock this thing out.”

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Breakdown, go ahead and give it to me

When Rush Limbaugh uttered those fateful words earlier this week comparing an organization of Iraq War veterans who are critical of the war and the Bush administration to suicide bombers — and despite his pleas and the assertions of his apologists, there is just no other way to read his comments — he may have sounded the death bell for conservative talk radio’s influence on political discourse.

Considered within the context of Bill O’Reilly’s increasingly bizarre behavior (his use of a body-language reader, his regular reference to stray comments on liberal and progressive sites, his conflation of fringe groups with what I’ll call the mainstream left), the oddball rants of people like Glenn Beck (I support free speech, but not the speech with which I disagree) and Limbaugh’s own off-the-charts nuttiness, the Limbaugh comments are just another sign of the sputtering of a movement spinning in upon itself, unable to deal with its own growing irrelevancy.

It’s not just the war that is at issue here, but the high-partisanism (Republicans good as apple pie, all Democrats evil Nazi wimps) and the meanness. I think people are starting to get wise to the whole thing — I won’t pretend that the conservative hosts aren’t the big men on the cable campus, but their ratings shares have been shrinking despite having an advantage in sheer number of hosts and a headstart in terms of access to the airwaves.

Give the liberals some time and a shot and they will level the playing field.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.