Another thing I’ve seen that I haven’t noticed before is a huge increase in roadkill, with over a dozen deer killed along a 2-mile long stretch of state road that passes by The Gulch’s neighborhood. Do you know how many roadkill deer I’ve seen on that stretch of road over the prior 5 years?
One.
I know we’ll see even more over the next few months, but I have to ask why the big increase? Is it that there are suddenly that many more deer? It’s a possibility considering last winter was rather mild. Is it that there’s more traffic and more of that traffic has more people “driving stupid”? Sure. Could it be a bit of both? Absolutely.
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One thing I’ve been hearing about is how this summer proves that human-caused climate change is real, between the record heat waves and heavy precipitation. Those making those claims would be right...if they can prove humans caused the eruption of the Tonga-Hunga volcano in the South Pacific two-and-a-half years ago.
The amount of water that undersea volcano threw into the atmosphere was unprecedented, adding between 100 and 150 million tons of water into the atmosphere, with much of it going into the stratosphere. The water vapor content of the atmosphere increased 13%. As water vapor is an efficacious greenhouse gas, more so than CO2, all that water vapor was going to have an effect on climate.
Some may think that the water would already have been ‘squeezed’ out of the atmosphere much like ash finally settles out of the atmosphere, but unlike other volcanic eruptions, this one didn’t throw a lot of ash into the atmosphere. It is the ash that can have effects on weather, usually causing cooling as the ash reduces insolation. Two of the largest volcano eruptions recorded - Tambora and Krakatoa – each caused a “Year without Summer” due to the sheer volume of ash ejected into the atmosphere. We saw a similar effect after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, but nowhere near the magnitude seen with the other two eruptions.
Tonga-Hunga threw a lot of water into the atmosphere. That water vapor took considerably longer to circulate around the world than any ash cloud. The year after the eruption saw some increased temperatures and higher than normal precipitation. This year, two-and-a-half years after the eruption, we are seeing the full-blown effects of all that extra water vapor with record high temperatures/heat waves and well above normal precipitation. This past winter was also affected.
Here in New England we saw warmer than normal temperatures and precipitation, though most of that precipitation was in the form of rain rather than snow.
One study suggests the effects of the Tonga-Hunga eruption on the climate will be felt for the rest of the decade.
That does imply we’ll continue to see above normal temperatures and above normal precipitations for at least a few more years.
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It looks like Biden is still trying to buy votes by yet another student loan forgiveness program, even though such loan forgiveness programs have already been stuck down by courts as illegal. SloJoe wants taxpayers to bail out people who took student loans to pay for their degrees, all as a means of buying their votes. Yet the courts keep denying him.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration is doing its best Billy Mays impersonation, announcing, “But wait — there’s more” student loan forgiveness.I have to wonder what bribe...err…incentive Biden (or WRBA) will try offering next?
“President Biden has announced a new student loan bailout for 35,000 borrowers through ‘Public Service Loan Forgiveness,’ a program that Biden says has brought the total number of people getting debt relief from his administration to 4.76 million,” reported Fox Business on Thursday. “Under the new plan, eligible public service workers get an average of $35,000 in debt relief, a statement from Biden's administration said, totaling about $1.2 billion.”
"These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers – teachers, nurses, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities," read a White House statement. "And because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families."
Okay, so it’s hard to oppose forgiving the student loans of people like police officers and nurses without sounding like a jerk, but this latest move is so galling because it comes after the White House has tried so many times to pander with student loan forgiveness. How much more obvious can these people be?
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There’s something to be said for the old Commodore 64 computers. Yes, indeed.
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Another sign that the Biden-Harris campaign has entered the doom loop?
Kamala’s inability to to reassure major campaign donors that Joe Biden has a chance of beating Trump, or that he will even be compos mentis by the November election. But it’s even worse than that.
Vice President Kamala Harris tried to buck up the Democratic Party’s biggest donors on Friday, telling about 300 of them that there was little to worry about in President Biden’s campaign.That is not a good sign for the Biden campaign.
Ms. Harris spoke to the group at a time of extraordinary turmoil among Democrats, with many hoping that she will replace Mr. Biden as the party’s nominee. But several listeners said they found the meeting overall to be of little value and even, at times, condescending, believing that the message ignored donors’ legitimate concerns about the Biden-led ticket.
Ms. Harris, of course, is in a delicate position: She must demonstrate loyalty to her boss but also be prepared to jump immediately to the top of the Democratic ticket if Mr. Biden were to withdraw.
“I will start by sharing something with all of you,” Ms. Harris told the donors, according to a listener on the call who described her remarks on the condition of anonymity, “something I believe in my heart of hearts. It is something I feel strongly you should all hear and should take with you when you leave. And tell your friends, too. We are going to win this election.” …
Some listeners said they did find Ms. Harris’s delivery to be strong, even if it offered little reassurance, and did not place the blame on her. And some of the donors who were disappointed with the call had preexisting concerns about Mr. Biden’s candidacy, which is why they had requested the briefing.
After the call, one group that had promoted it in advance apologized to its members for having done so.
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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been great, the summerfolk have been making the most of it, and where I can get out onto the lake on Monday afternoon since none of the weekend summerfolk will be around.