Spring March - over and out

Here it is, March 31, 2014.  Here are some highlights looking back through the month-

Last day patrolling was yesterday, Spring fling was a pajama party

Mid March we went for a week long hotspring visit

We saw our first mosquito of the season snowcamping at the springs

We hosted our first long distance cyclists of the season

Thanks to Marco and Sarah for cooking us an amazing dinner

That visit made us catch the travel bug and I figured out I've visited 6.22 % of the planet.

What will April bring other than tax season?

February happenings

Skinning up the Dhu

Skiing the Dhu

View of Phoenix Mtn from the dacha

I love how Canadians fly the flag everywhere

A view from Phoenix Mtn looking over to the Dhu

I love storm days

Making a black burrito of a kid

Mainstreet Greenwood

And it's not over yet!

Fossil Fuel Resistance

I watched the Bill Moyers show with Bill McKibben interviewed.  There were many good reasons about why the world citizens and particularly President Obama needs to stop the Keystone Pipeline from being built. In January a report was issued from the state department that was the final Environmental Impact Statement. It basically said that the pipeline was safe and that the pipeline didn't contribute to climate change. Of course it didn't talk about all the heavy oil that would be flowing through it and those consenquences.

The bottom line is this project needs to be stopped in order to shut down the extraction of the oilsands in Canada so that there is a chance for international negotiations to take place to come up with a plan to stop continued warming of the planet.  We need to resist continued use of fossil fuels.  Period.  You would think a war would get that point across as well, but then I guess really in the end it's all about money.

Snowden?  Did I miss it that some of the data he released from the NSA was that the United States had placed "bugs" in the Copenhagen 2009 climate change summit that failed so poorly?

No wonder the United States wants Snowden's head.

So, watch the interview- it's worth the time.  The politics and the money and the different sides are difficult for me to understand.  What's the point of talking about richer corporations getting richer, normal people having jobs, and a safest pipeline designed if the climate continues to warm up?  I'm intelligent enough to know that the continued burning of fossil fuels is the route to this catastrophe and we all need to make our opinion known.  There is plenty of evidence already that the 1 degree warming is too much already.

Spend time to send a letter to President Obama and Secretary Kerry and tell them that the Keystone Pipeline needs to not be built.  Perhaps that will buy us some time to really get to work and get off fossil fuel.

President Obama:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Secretary of State Kerry:  Response Via Email(Support Agent) - 02/18/2014 01:26 PM

On January 31, 2014, the Department of State released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project. It and additional documents are available on the State Department’s website: www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov. A 30-day public comment period will begin with the publication of a Federal Register notice on February 5, 2014 and will close on March 7, 2014. During this period, the public and interested parties are encouraged to submit comments on the national interest to http://www.regulations.gov. Comments are not private and will be made public. 

I love snow and so do polar bears.

Executive Order pretty please

It's been a long time since I've been here, but I think this place should be part of an executive order for permanent protection from oil and gas development.  It's winter now, dark and cold, but very much alive in the winter, and in the summertime, which is when I visited.  It's the equivalent of the greatest national parks in the world. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge needs permanent protection from any sort of development, and that means being used as a staging area for off shore oil drilling as well.   Polar Bears den onshore here. It is also the calving ground of the internationally shared Porcupine Caribou Herd that uses this area every summer for breeding.  Millions of birds breed here.

I hope I can go visit again soon and hopefully I won't have to stand in front of the bulldozers.

Climate Changed

The sunshine in the mountains for skiing is acceptable, not that storm cm's of new snow wouldn't be better, But I am hopeful this blocking high pressure ridge will be over soon.  I'm starting to think that's the same level of denial the majority society along with the politicians and corporate multinationals who still can profit from doing nothing about climate change. The lowlands are stuck in fog around where I live and it's been this way for weeks and will be at least another week or more if we're so lucky.  I'm just talking about fog now, not cyclones and rising seas that devastate entire countries.  Really, I'm worried about lack of storm snow.

Rolling fog up the North Fork

Sure it's a classy problem compared to immediate catastrophic disasters, but the inversion that the Pacific Northwest has been experiencing is getting a bit tiring.  Probably as tiring as living back east such as where the snow drifts over the house roofs.  That's probably a bit little too much too.  Eastern Canada is getting hit hard.

Looking south to the line

A friend of mine whose parents live in Nova Scotia says she has snow up to the house eaves.  When the ski areas start to advertise "We have snow" like Mt. Bachelor recently put up on their website, ski resorts are desperate.  "The mountains are in surprisingly good shape considering the lack of overall snow," is what the Whistler website states.  Sounds like a kind of optimism that borders on denial.  I doubt not even Whistler can get their snowmaking happening with 12,000 foot freeze levels.

We have lots of hoar frost growing, even in the trees

This warm dry weather that has been plaguing us all fall and winter doesn't look like it's going to let up.  The long range forecast is for warmer and drier conditions throughout the entire west coast.  And yes, California is burning. Yes, like the Russian government who has spent $50 billion on an Olympic Event where locals don't even remember the last time it snowed, I'm in denial.  I just don't want to believe there will not be more snow falling and winter storm warnings.  But that is what it is looking like.

Doesn't look like Sochi has much snow for the Olympics either.

Needless to say, the climate has changed.

"Higher cool season (October through March) temperatures cause more precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow and contribute to earlier snowmelt. April 1 snowpack, a key indicator of natural water storage available for the warm season, has already declined substantially throughout the region. The average decline in the Cascade Mountains, for example, was about 25 percent over the past 40 to 70 years, with most of this due to the 2.5°F increase in cool season temperatures over that period. Further declines in Northwest snowpack are projected to result from additional warming over this century, varying with latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. April 1 snowpack is projected to decline as much as 40 percent in the Cascades by the 2040s. Throughout the region, earlier snowmelt will cause a reduction in the amount of water available during the warm season".

  -   retrieved from http://nca2009.globalchange.gov/    

I guess I was hoping the climate was going to change somewhere else.  Bad joke.  Now what to do about it? Join 350.org.  Write the politicians that represent me.  Get the most fuel efficient car I can. Ride bicycles.  Be aware of my carbon footprint in everything I do.  Don't buy banannas. Eat local food. Drive at 55mph/90km. Turn off the computer and go to sleep.  Dream of snow.