A little bird told me #phenology

We got a couple of inches or so of snow last night. This morning chickadees are flocking to the feeders as if they were Black Friday shoppers at big box stores. Juncos are hopping around on the snow-covered ground under those feeders and occasionally getting scared off or chased away by one of the neighborhood bluejays. If our name were Inhofe, and we were a US Senator from Oklahoma, this weather could provide an excuse to challenge the existence of global warming and reportedly shorter snow seasons. Instead, we'll call your attention to this report, released yesterday:

• Highlights of the Findings of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Science Special Report (Executive Summary)


• Climate Science Special Report Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I (Full Report)

There have been several Tweets about that report, but we found mike augustyniak's to be particularly well done.

"will flit for food"

Photo by J. Harrington

Chickadees can only adapt to the changes they're experiencing. We can do better than chickadees. We can modify those of our activities that have caused climate change at the same time we adapt to the effects of global warming since

"... it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence."

"just a quick bite"

Photo by J. Harrington

The World Economic Forum has written about key steps to a more sustainable economy. As we move through our transitions in weather, climate and economy, we need to remember that

The question is: how much of our industrial system must we transform? Carbon dioxide will build up in the atmosphere until we stop removing fossil carbon from the ground, which means that very soon we will have to dramatically reduce our use of a raw material that is central to our global economy. The change will be easier if we can produce goods using carbon-neutral or low-carbon raw and recycled materials. Plastics manufacturers want ethylene, not crude oil; wind turbine manufacturers want steel, not iron ore and coke; server clusters need electricity, not coal. For some products, this is possible in principle, but there are important differences between fossil carbon and the alternatives. Renewable energy sources are thinly spread, often intermittent, and annual production is limited. Nuclear power remains an option but is expensive to build and operate and, as Fukushima showed, can pose risks even when managed well.

In Minnesota, we have the benefit of having helped create a culture that produced the Nobel Laureate who wrote:

That he not busy being born is busy dying

Much of Minnesota's North Country was "settled" by Finns and Swedes and Norwegians, the same cultures and economies that are helping to lead our way into a "New Normal" that we all face together. There's not yet reason for us to run around like chickadees with our heads cut off nor scream that "the sky is falling" as long as we don't sit on our wings hands and do nothing.

Horoscope

Maureen N. McLane

Again the white blanket    
icicles pierce.
The fierce teeth
of steel-framed snowshoes
bite the trail open.
Where the hardwoods stand
and rarely bend
the wind blows hard
an explosion of snow
like flour dusting
the baker in a shop
long since shuttered.
In this our post-shame century
we will reclaim
the old nouns
unembarrassed. 
If it rains 
we’ll say oh
there’s rain.
If she falls
out of love
with you you’ll carry
your love on a gold plate
to the forest and bury it
in the Indian graveyard.
Pioneers do not
only despoil.
The sweet knees
of oxen have pressed
a path for me.
A lone chickadee
undaunted thing
sings in the snow.    
Flakes appear
as if out of air
but surely they come
from somewhere
bearing what news
from the troposphere.
The sky’s shifted
and Capricorns abandon
themselves to a Sagittarian
line. I like
this weird axis.
In 23,000 years
it will become again
the same sky
the Babylonians scanned.