My I unload a rant on you all? (No? Too bad. It’s MY blog.)
Why is it that on-air personalities at CBC, a radio station that should be promoting good social ideals (and does most of the time) continually CROW over the (quote-unquote) “GREAT WEATHER”!?!?
“Oh, summer is really here… It’s so invigorating…” Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Well, CBC, kiss my … Blue box.
Yes, it is hot. Yes, some people like that. OK, if I weren’t over-weight and from the east coast, and if I weren’t allergic to that hideous ball of fire in the sky that is slowly killing us all, I might like it too. However, the point is that people DIE in Toronto every month of summer due to heat and smog. This is not to be celebrated.
The big point is: IT IS NOT SUMMER YET! It is spring. Spring, People! Spring, NOT SUMMER. Get it? That means that a temperature of nearly 40 is NOT normal for Canada in the spring. We have ruined this area of earth so completely that is trying to claw us one last time as it slips into its smog-enshrouded tomb!
Every time the heat climbs (an event so beloved by Ontaronians, it seems, that they can’t stand it) it sends them scurrying back indoors to crank up their A/C, and prevents them from even thinking of walking anywhere. Thus it is from the frigid house to the frigid car, all the way to their frigid office, and back again. The cycle of pollution rolls on. Turn, turn, turn. Yes, a season they seem to love dearly, eh? All this love is killing us.
So, CBC, I love you, but our relationship is on the rocks. Climate change is not something to cheer about.
Just tell me the damn news and stay on your side of the bed until winter.
4 comments:
see my post on michael crichton's state of fear for a scientist's view on the climate change issue. it has been hotly debated in many of my graduate courses, and i finally know where i stand.
http://latinamarie.blogspot.com/2005/05/state-of-fear.html
Wow. Well, I never claimed to be a scientist. How do you feel about the effects of pavement on heat in an urban centre?
Plus, as a former student of archaeology I am interested in your opinions on the effects of funding on research- this is a particularly hot topic in Israeli history and archaeology.
Thanks for your comments.
hmm...i call myself a scientist, but i only have a bachelor's degree in biology. i'm working on the Ph.D. thing now.
urban areas are definitely hotter than rural areas. how much of this is due to pavement, i don't know. i think that a lot of the excess heat in large cities is due to automobiles and large buildings that trap the heat. i'm sure that the heat absorbed by the pavement also plays a role, but i have no idea how big it is. the discrepancy in long-term warming between urban and rural areas is one issue in the climate change debate that has yet to be resolved.
i think that the funding available for certain topics definitely drives the type of research that gets done, but i don't think that funding determines results. data determine results, not the funding agency. i do think, though, that a researcher can have a perfectly valid research idea that doesn't get funded because all of the available money is going to "more important" research for the moment. i don't really know how an archaeologist gets funding, but i assume that it's a similar process to a biologist/ecologist getting funding. you have to apply for grants from the right agency at the right time. depending on where you work, you might not really have a choice in the type of research you do. that's why i tend to favor academia over government agencies as a source of employment. there is more freedom in research topics in academia than at, say, the EPA.
my post may have made it sound as if i don't think that global warming is important, but i do drive a fuel-efficient car and walk where i can. i'm all for conserving resources, but in order to make everyone else change their fossil-fuel burning ways, we have to appeal to them... i.e., make people see that using renewable energy sources isn't just about saving the whales, polar bears, etc.
Thanks for adding a bit to my blog. I'm still new to this game, and have yet to understand how I can make it all it can be. Your comments are very valuable!
Thanks for visiting.
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