Anyone who spent time in Albany, NY in June or July 2009 would have thought it was Seattle, Washington, because it rained. A lot. And the rain was often accompanied by severe weather – lightning, thunder and/or high winds. (Incidentally, the weather in Seattle at that time was uncharacteristically HOT, cracking 100F or 38C several times.)
One day in June, I was going to ride home, but I bailed. Severe weather – torrential winds, and some of the scariest lightning and thunder I’d ever experienced – meant that I put the bike on the bus and got home. But in that 10 minute-trip, the weather subsided. I took the bike off the bus and rode the last two blocks home. Generally, I cut through a bank parking lot, and past the elementary school, when I came across – well the pictures you’re now seeing tell the story. The red brick building is the school, the more orange building, the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library.)
I called the library – the tree was on its property initially, though where it ell was all school property. But I think it was the school who had cleaned up the mess – at least on their side of the fence, by morning.
I can’t help but think: the weather is SO peculiar these days. Greenland and the Maldives Are Far Apart on the Map But Connected by Rapidly Melting Glaciers and Rising Sea Levels. If you go to abcnews.com and type in Bolivia, you’ll find a story about the disappearing slopes in the Andes, where glaciers are melting at such a rate they can longer be skied in Bolivia. A recent study says a two-degree temperature rise could flood wide areas of the planet.
Yet a kerfuffle over some e-mails – did these people even READ the content? – have led certain people to the irrational conclusion that there is no global warming. Meanwhile, I was hoping for substantive breakthrough, but the climate conference in Copenhagen has generated voluntary, unenforceable goals. I think I’ll keep worrying.