Archives for Category "Energy & Environment"
October 12, 2007
Nobel
Congratulations, Al Gore!The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Al Gore, the former American vice president, and to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work to alert the world to the threat of global warming.
<=> | Comments: 1 | in: Energy & Environment
August 15, 2007
Drought
I've been peering at my poor thirsty shrubs, lavender, and rosebushes all summer thinking that we simply must be in a drought and wondering why there's not more coverage of it. It has barely rained for 2 months - a couple of anemic thundershowers now and then. I water the shrubs and flowers in our new backyard, but I also don't want to be one of those people who wastes a lot of water on my yard. I've been totally ignoring the front of the townhouse, so that patch of grass is now a little sandbox, but I would like to at least keep the roses and lavender and ficus alive. So I water them by hand but don't use sprinklers. Anyway, liberal middle-class guilt aside, we are in a pretty major drought right now. And the Washington Post has finally decided to put it on the front page. Turns out it's gotten so bad that some wells are running dry on the Eastern Shore.Since the spring, rain has fallen at half its usual levels. The entire Washington region, from Loudoun County to the Chesapeake Bay, is suffering a severe drought. And no immediate relief is in sight. At Reagan National Airport, 4.19 inches of rain have fallen since June 1. Normal for that period: 8.22 inches. "The weather has been in a rut," said Douglas Le Comte, a drought specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. "We started a dry trend in mid-April and never really caught up."I wish we had a good spot for a rain barrel at our house - I wonder if we could tuck one in on the front behind the bushes. Hmmm...
<=> | Comments: 1 | in: Energy & Environment
