Drought Monitor Improving
Here’s the U.S. Drought Monitor as of last week, still showing a frightening and sad situation for many people in the West. However, even since that time there has been more rain for California and slowly but surely (very slowly) the three-year drought seems to be improving. They will need a lot of consistent rain to make up for such an enormous deficit. For us in the East there is very little to mention apart from some patchy long-term moderate drought in Rhode Island, Connecticut and part of New York. That took a hit, thankfully, due to the Nor’easter that ripped through the...
Read MoreSouthwest/California drought
I shouldn’t complain about the overabundance of water in the Chautauqua-Allegheny region as I am well aware we are in far better shape than our friends in the Southwest, California especially. These United States Drought Monitor maps tell the ongoing disturbing story. Our weather patterns continue to be too stagnant in all seasons, a likely side effect from how we are altering our global climate.
Read MoreWhite-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus)
The ongoing California drought is said to be responsible for an unprecedented breeding crash for raptors like this White-tailed Kite: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/thomas-614718-year-drought.html
Read MoreThe U.S. is part of the Earth
Continuing my recent theme of considering philosophical concerns in regard to conservation and education issues I wanted to discuss a problem that is persisting well into the 21st century: that America is the center of the universe and anything that happens outside of its boundaries is irrelevant in terms of our natural world. The most recent example of this is the outbreak of arctic air that poured into the U.S. We’ll be having another cold snap this week and most of our mainstream media, including “pundits” who have political agendas denying climate science, will go back...
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