Change III - Weather

For years I was with the National Weather Service at NOAA and had the privilege of working alongside their scientists as a computer guy.   I can also tell you ten years before I left the overwhelming agreement was indeed climate change was real and a warmer planet was inevitable - the question was how far. The 97% agreement figure among scientists in climate is if anything low.  People brainwashed by petrodollar propaganda masquerading as science will pipe up to contradict this yelling 'No it's not I have a website or Breitbart article.".

They are wrong. But the Koch brothers and Big Oil money make sure there are plenty of them.

These scientists would rather slap their mommas then see one data point corrupted. They live for data and therefore science. We all know they are the big guns of the objective science chronicling what is happening.

As October ends and my 60th birthday passes I'd like to note the subjective - as a resident near the US eastern seaboard. The first snows I would see before my birthday now come after it.  Increases in moisture uptake leading to higher inches of precipitation of rain and snow.  More regular and higher floods. Powerful hurricanes in from the Atlantic more often due to ocean warming.

The recent UN report tells us the timeframe for action isn't 100 years but 10 years. That's to turn a giant fossil fuel burning power back and move to renewable energy, probably with a core of nuclear fission until we get to fusion. Fission has serious issues but carbon emission isn't one and we need a bridge to fusion before we cook ourselves.

If you can see it coming too, vote for better environmental stewardship this November in the US. Citizens of the world beyond the US, please work for a government that will help reduce carbon emissions.

Another Intermission - Politics

My father was a conservative before his death in 2003. He admired Reagan and didn't believe the darker stuff about Nixon.

I on the other hand have always been a liberal. I do think that we each appreciated parts of each other's point of view. I liked Dad's insistence on fiscal responsibility, I think he appreciated my desire for a society where your color or creed didn't define you.  He was perhaps a product of white Iowa farm country but the Navy taught him to work across race lines. As for religion he believed in something bigger than himself but was not a dogmatic type. I think his deepest passion, like a religious fervor, was for his country.

We not only saw each others sides we saw the flaws in our own.  I know my views on sexual orientation had to change from my youthful views only knowing standard roles and slurs for outsiders. Slowly I came to understand these outsiders were friends, coworkers, and family.  I'm a long way from good at life but I'm trying - a big part of that is tolerance.

Lately I'd like to be tolerant, but I'm really stressed by the new populist conservative movement.  White power movements, aggression towards immigrants, slavish tribalism, and hostility to science.  Led by a game show host with a creepy background funded by a bad foreign dictator.  Who seems to have corrupted the good parts of conservatism - such as they were.

The GOP elected by a minority of America is playing the power game beyond all limits. This minority backed party controls all three branches of power and is working on further packing the court with a very dishonest idealogue with secretive track record of perjury and on the record vindictive declaration against half the country. His on the record statements are clear he will rule to keep a permanent lock on power and presidency.  Finally for the subjective part about women in general and an attempted assault in particular - having listened to both I believe she is more credible and he definitely has lies in testimony. Again.

It is hard to separate the conservative supporters in my life from the creeps at the top controlling them. I will try.

Change II - Temperature

A trope of climate change is any one incident is relatively meaningless - just a cold snap or a hot week doesn't prove a lot - the long term averages do.  I've got to say world records for heat seem to be following me around - most painfully an all time record in humid Tokyo Japan.  Seeing Haichiko and other sites just about put me down - not pretty. A fat man does not get rid of heat quickly.

Now I do think that even a couple of degrees since the seventies is a noticeable change on the East Coast. I've talked about impact under the ocean - this is noticeable difference in above ground climate. There is a great graphic of high temp records across the decades which goes from a rainbow to all red in the 2000's.  I notice things like ponds and ice skating which has gone from waiting for  date well into winter to no longer safe anytime in the year. I was never a great ice skater (I cleaned the ice backside first - ha!) but like other kids it was one of those things you looked forward too. Sadly like the snows caps of Kilimanjaro - no more.

Once again a bad change I can bear witness to. I try to stay hopeful. Today about 35 Model 3 owners got together in Canada - I was there and it was exciting to see the optimism. Too little too late? Only time will tell. My son saw Tokyo up close - his generation will see worse but I remain confident they will help turn it around.

Here's a great XKCD timeline of temperature variation to bring it home to our ostrich in sand climate deniers.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Personal Interlude

My dad was a stiff upper lip type Navy man. On subs it was life or death playing cat and mouse with the Russians under water. That may have molded the steely persona he had. Bottom Gun.

An old wives tale says as long as one person remembers you or says your name you are still out in cosmos so to speak. I have only one tale for my grandfather Bernard. Dad really admired him and told me about his days as a bank examiner. (My aunt Ila was on the board of an Iowa bank as well.)  Bernard told David Lee - if they take you to lunch, they are usually hiding something. This and that he was kind are all I know - I was just too young.  Grandmom Fern visited many times when I was older so I have memories there. She was a Flemming so we got our quarter Scot from her.

Dad was tough but cared about us and was always supportive of the family. At the same time he was no angel ranging abroad on long sub tours and eventually he and Mom divorced.  Mom was not the greatest with money so it was a complicated time for her. I helped her buy a townhouse in Gettysburg and she eventually made ends meet..

My dad died in 2003.  We had some time as his lung cancer took longer than most - he fought hard. I remember one day we were talking and he looked me in the eye and said 'remember me son'. He was tearful but like always, not quite crying. Most choked up I ever saw him. My Dad gave me my curiosity for science and computer basics, as well as a roof, clothes, and all the other providing. He was a good father. He wasn't a naturally affectionate man, but towards the end we even got a few hugs in.  My future Eagle scout saluted him goodbye at Arlington.

He left behind three children, six grandchildren, and a widow.  I remember you Dad.

Change I - Oceans

As a tech rep contracted to the Navy down in Puerto Rico, I was fortunate to be allowed in with the Navy dive club and over a few months earn a NAUI open water and later a PADI divemaster rating. Basically if I wasn't working I was getting fifty cent air tank fills and diving.  Scuba day and night, shore dives and boat dives. My vacation days were spent at other dive sites a plane hop away in the British and US Virgin Islands.  Manatees, shark, big lobster (one of the few things we hunted - in general not much on spearfishing etc.), octopus, Moray eels, and every color of amazing fish. Beautiful coral polyps out filter feeding. An amazing time to dive.

The 1980s were a time when very little coral bleaching was seen - even post storm damage the coral bounced back quickly. However diving in 2005 near St John twenty years had a big impact. The small but constant oil input from motorboats, sea acidification increase from higher CO2 levels, and slight increase in temperature had combine to create large bleached and dead areas in fragile coral. New divers thought the coral skeletons were the norm and I generally didn't talk much about my disappointment. Trash in the form of waste was more common too. Plastic especially.

There are good spots I have seen and still others I'm told.  There are some protected areas free from motor oils and diesel exhaust are faring better such as several large Cuban preserves where the stressors are limited to just CO2 and temperature and the coral fairs better with smaller damage. Overall however the destruction is unmistakeable in the 35 years I have been in scuba. With my own eyes I can tell you the Caribbean is suffering.

The oceans are our best hope keeping this planet's life healthy. They are in peril and not close to fully functioning. Islands of plastic, dying coral, and overfished populations of sport fish are having the effect of killing the seas we love. Simply by chance my job and hobby let me testify to this personally.

Observing the changes

As a young man my first part time job was moving stock for a department store. Oddly I could actually afford a cheap apartment at 19, a motorbike, and a series of jalopies. My spitfire with used beer tap shifter was the most fun but always falling apart. Working about 30 hrs a week and going to a local Community College. In the late seventies. I also worked part time as a 'data aide' at the college which gave me a little something technical for a beginning resume.

Imagine being able to do that today on a retail job. Not a chance. Oh I had a roommate or two to help pay the bills now and then. When a sharp professor of computer science saw some ability I was able to get an entry level programming job. Computer Data Systems Inc was a contract shop that put jobs on my resume and taught me the ropes.  I worked with talented men and women of all races and backgrounds. No longer the most talented guy in the room like at school, I had to scramble to learn. I loved every minute. Later I worked with the prof who got me my start on a military computer communications job.  Spec'd as a four person two year job, we brought it in two weeks late with just the two of us during the majority of the work and occasional coworkers that would quit under the load.  I often fell asleep at the computer console late at night.

Next I moved to an 8A computer consulting firm doubling my entry salary to one pretty decent for a young man. Eighteen months later back to CDSI for a military contract in Puerto Rico.  Forty hours a week most of the time with occasional late night emergency. Suddenly I had time to bike, dive, and sail. With a Divemaster rating I spent a great deal of in the early eighties diving all over the Caribbean.  I enjoyed a relatively still healthy Caribbean sea - very little bleaching, mostly beautiful coral.

This is why I feel uniquely a witness to what is happening in our world. I've watched the incredible evolution of inequality. Or perhaps it's return. The changes fossil fuel energizing the world but also dumping CO2 into the air have wrought.  I'm not especially noble, just a good puzzle solver who was fortunate to turn that into a career.  As an OWG - happily retired I have a chance to give back a little perhaps. If just a couple people read what I've seen and are woke from the lullaby conservative media hypnotize people with - maybe I'll tip the scales for a little more positive karma to help save our grandkids.

Content is easier to fantasize than create. Well 1st steps.

Ouch I just looked at the date on the first and only post for 20thCV.

OK this content thing is clearly a challenge for me. One thing that I considered with an idea like 20thCV was the content would try to look at both the lonely side now and the interesting parts of living through the turn of the century. While staying honest about a quiet solitary life. Still it's hard to write - so it may return to cobwebs again. If not - well it may be a little lame.

My first memory is of my mom crying next to an indoor clothes drying rack. Kennedy had been assassinated - I just remember because I had never seen my mom cry like that. Lots of friends can remember further back than five but that's it for me. I do remember within a year later loving to read and by ten getting my own copy of The Foundation Trilogy and quickly devoured it. I had joined the Science Fiction Book Club at about nine but that book at ten was really big for me. 

I had an early gift for reading, science, and math - but never a knack for sports. Dad gave me chess and binary counting as well as science kits when I was young. Years later these skills would help me post high school when the computing revolution came for me. Socially awkward although I still had many nerdy good friends among the fellow geeks in middle, high school, and junior college. I could rattle off half hour Firesign Theatre and Monty Python skits by heart but flunk college English composition. Zero self discipline to study anything I wasn't interested in but voracious for subjects I did care about.

Computing gave me a career that was willing to overlook ( in the early days ) a bad educational track record and instead focused on my talent for writing code to solve any problem - I loved puzzles.  A college programming prof recommended me for a job and I was off and running.

Now I was a young man with a future and while I didn't know it - I had a perfect placement to watch the change in American society and would also see changes in our worlds environment.