One of the greatest aspects of growing older is having grandchildren, and one of the greatest aspects of grandchildren is creating art with them.

Since my grandson could hold a pencil, we have spent hundreds of hours together before and during the pandemic on his remote learning days. What started as a mutual enjoyment of drawing and coloring together has become a weekly two-hour session ”in the flow.”

Even though I am not an artist by trade and only have one art class to my name, I had a buddy teach me fundamental watercolor techniques and kept sketching and painting…

Almost 100 years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation one state outlawed enslavement and emancipated enslaved people

By 1777, many wilderness towns between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River (no the state of Vermont) had elected representatives for a convention. Most of the reps were Green Mountain Boys who had bought a pitch of land from the New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth. The land titles were bitterly contested between New York and New Hampshire. The Green Mountain Boys militia group actively roughed up the “Yorker” surveyors and sheriffs, showing favor to the New Hampshire grants instead. …

You are not Going to Believe This

There I was, sitting at the Beachcomber Restaurant on a Florida Beach last February, a month before the pandemic began, munching on fish and chips. I graciously let my date, my wife of many years, have the ocean view and sat with my back to the Atlantic surf. It was a picture-perfect day, the mid-70s, hazy sun, and not too crowded on the patio.

Our conversation was interesting and it was only our first of 10 days there so we were thrilled to be into the subtropical air and expecting a good stretch…

Climatologist says it will crush humanity like a bug

The “ Blue Ocean Event,” or BOE, where for the first time in human history, virtually all of the ice will be melted from the Arctic seas, may happen as early as September of 2020. Climate Systems Specialist Paul Beckwith predicts the BOE, when less than 1 million square kilometers of ice is left will happen this year.

Wait, what? All of the ice gone from the Arctic? Of course, there is no landmass at the North Pole like there is at the South Pole with the continent of Antarctica. …

The record-setting dust cloud from the Sahara Desert that has been nicknamed, “The Godzilla Dust Storm” has traversed the Atlantic Ocean and is now depositing a cloud of dust over parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast.

The Sahara Air Layer (SAL), as it is called by NOAA, is common during the summer months and some years can cover the lower 48 states. This particular cloud is one of the most widespread, intense, and dense dust cloud events observed in recent decades since they were first measured in 2002. This cloud will cause dangerous air pollution for a while and…

Throughout Earth’s history, changes in the jet stream have been vitally important for our weather and climate systems. The jet streams, as you remember from Earth Science class, are high-altitude 200-mile-per-hour air currents in the north and south hemispheres. They flow west to east, hundreds of miles wide on meandering paths.

The winds vary in location, speed, and waviness as they move around our spinning planet. …

Climate action seems to be taking a back seat to public health and social issues right now. To look at the headlines, one might conclude that the media has forgotten all about the climate apocalypse in the midst of Covid fatigue. But the virus is part of a much bigger problem.

Pandemics and accelerated social problems are two of the many impacts of climate change, along with superstorms, floods, national security, food and water insecurity, economic decline, and extreme weather. If we want to keep climate action on the front burner we need to keep talking about it. …

A recent post on Craigslist asked a few questions that echo what some white men are feeling.

Are we all racist simply by virtue of being white?

Are all white men complicit in exploiting and oppressing blacks and women?

Do all white men need to commit mass suicide before activists are happy?

The “Black Lives Matter” and other protest messages are apparently getting under the skin of some white people. It is hard to miss the dialogue and the placards condemning white privilege and demanding justice. …