Disaster

The worst natural disaster in American history is unfolding right now, and will continue to for days. The coast of Texas, particularly Houston, is being slowly drowned in what may wind up being 48 inches (120cm) of rain. It will continue for days more and will not recede completely for weeks.

The only thing most of us can do is pray. There will be opportunities to donate and volunteer and I urge everyone to do so. This is going to cause a lot of suffering for a long time. But even through the pain there is something valuable which I hope we can learn – we are indeed all in this together and our world is, defiantly, what we make of it together.

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Busted Weather

It was a glorious Independence Day in Minnesota.  A high of 84F and a decent breeze to take the edge off the sun made the perfect backdrop to pick up the aroma of grilling meat.  It’s all any of us could ever hope for.  But it was in blinding contrast to the soggy wet June that made a mud puddle out of huge swatches of southern Minnesota and brought nasty storms that at one point had over a million people without power.  What is up with this weather?

The same strange patterns that brought us a drought last year have been equally unkind in the opposite way this year, meaning we are in a kind of long-term trend towards more extreme weather in every and all direction.  Exactly why is unclear, but we can expect this to continue.  At least when everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything we can call it a reasonable response, yes?

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