Summary: http://bit.ly/GRGbPD Summer in March? I ask the experts, Joe Romm of Climate Progress, and Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground. Then we visit with Professor Raymond De Young. When we get exciting weather, it's hard to beat the Dr. Jeff Masters blog at the Weather Underground. Jeff has taught meteorology, he's been a Hurricane Hunter for NOAA, and still watches storms and all forms of strange weather. A BUNCHA HOT MARCH LINKS FOR YOU Here is a link to Jeff's key blog post on "Summer in March". In the interview, I also reference this article from Andrew Freedman of Climate Central. His piece was titled "Global Warming May Have Fueled March Heat Wave Odds." And this is what Dr. James Hansen of NASA has been saying: we wouldn't see these extreme heat events so often, without the greenhouse gases we've added to the atmosphere. Also at wunderground.com, your weather historian Christopher C. Burt posted some neat graphics and a thorough listing of the new heat records set. Our listeners from the Mid-West, through New England and all of Eastern Canada can find the new and old records here. And it wasn't just in North America. The UK Telegraph headline Friday March 23rd: "UK to be as Hot as the Sahara This Weekend." Britain hit 20 degrees C, a balmy 68, the day before, a temperature normally seen in June. You can find Bill McKibben (350.org) talking with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! about the weird March weather here. I also like this blog entry at the Washington Post from "the Capital Weather Gang". For more on impacts on crops, here is another radio piece from IPR. CBS did a decent piece on the impact of early Spring/summer weather for allergy sufferers. DOWNLOAD THE JEFF MASTER INTERVIEW (15 min) Lo-Fi (4 Megabytes) CD quality (13 MB) JOE ROMM FROM CLIMATE PROGRESS WEIGHS IN Summer in March... is it a preview of global warming? Our guest has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. He was a top advisor for energy efficiency and renewables in the Clinton Administration. Joe Romm is author of the book "Hell and High Water". But many of us know him as the world's best climate blogger over at ThinkProgress.org. Here is Joe's great piece on the March heat wave. He's so good at summing up for busy people, targeting what really matters. On the agricultural damage caused in Texas by the big heat and drought of 2011, see Joe's other post here. DOWNLOAD THE JOE ROMM INTERVIEW 17 min (separately) Lo-Fi CD Quality "I'M A CLIMATE SCIENTIST" - THE VIDEO! Young climate scientists have heard enough from old weathermen and fake experts. A group of real scientists rolled out this quick song on You tube. My thanks to VR in Colorado for this G-rated version. Here is a link to the clean version of "I'm a Climate Scientist" as a You tube video (OK for FCC broadcast regs). My thanks to VR in Colorado for creating the fun clean version for Radio Ecoshock. RETHINK AND RELOCALIZE - RAYMOND DE YOUNG Raymond De Young is an academic who isn't working for a military think-tank, or explaining why we should just keep climbing the consumer ladder. His "Localization Reader" will likely fall into hands that get dirty in gardens, and active in your community. De Young is Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning, in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, at the University of Michigan. DOWNLOAD RAYMOND DE YOUNG as a separate interview (24 minutes) In faster downloading Lo-Fi In CD quality I came upon Raymond's work through the psychologist Carolyn Baker. Carolyn has the "Speaking Truth to Power" web site, and a great alternative headline news service. She passed on an article about how to survive our knowledge of a society under extreme stress - with a technique as simple as a walk in the park. The article is titled "Restoring Mental Vitality in an Endangered World: Reflections on the Benefits of Walking". This really struck a chord with me. I walk through some trees, or along a stream, every day of the year. I've had a few almost hallucinogenic
