Blogs

China and the US announced a substantial policy down payment on tackling greenhouse gas emissions in Beijing this week. 

It was fitting that New York hosted the recent UN climate change summit for several reasons. Let’s start with the old joke about the guy who jumps off the Empire State Building and, as he passes the 50th floor on this way down, is heard to say “so far so good.” But the pavement, that is looming larger by the minute to our clueless friend, is about to smack all of us in the face.

Thank goodness the graduation season is finally over. I witnessed pomp and circumstance at prep schools from Orlando to the Napa Valley and at colleges from Los Angeles to the Ivy League. The surprising topic at all of these cap-and-gown fests? Endowments divesting their holdings in fossil fuel companies.

Any American civics lesson includes the “balance of powers” of our government among its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. 

 

What do you get Mother Earth on her big day (reminder: it’s April 22nd!)? 

Overheard at the water cooler this week:

Tom: Sally, did you know we can solve climate change for as little as $35 per person?

Sally: I’m afraid that’s a waste of my money, Tom.

Ever hear of a reality show called “Snake Salvation?” 

Me neither, until one of the serpent-handling co-stars was bit last month by a snake during a church service and later died. 

As the confetti is swept away and the world gets back to work, will 2014 be a banner year or will we be singing that “old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind” a year from now? 

Legend says that naughty kids get a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking, so do nice kids get clean energy in theirs, at least metaphorically speaking? 

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that before mid-century the exponential acceleration of information technologies, robotics, medical science, and artificial intelligence will result in a “singularity”, a point at which humans will essentially merge with their technology.