A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."

Economist Rajendra Pachauri: "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."

There are no silver bullets: Success only comes in 1% solutions.

We have the responsibility to be the change we want in the world.

We have a crisis. It's not housing. Or healthcare. No, it's not the price of gas. Or ethanol crowding out the occasional use of corn for food. Or the rationing of rice. Or the fact that many parts of the world are in drought.

Nope. What we have here is far more trivial.

(Speculation on Pennsyvania primary results, chest-beating about CNN's coverage, and other topical issues don't appear in this diary. Consider it a waste of valuable diary space -- apologies! Or a late-night respite from the crazy season during the quiet hours on DailyKos.)

I've been trying to make our home more efficient. I've measured the electrical use on almost everything I can, I've installed compact fluorescent lights, experimented with a few LED lightbulbs, put most consumer electronics on a "Smart Strip" which shuts off all power to non-essential things so they don't consume trickle-charges. We replaced our windows with double-pane, low-E windows. And our electricity use went from 650 kilowatt-hours a month to about 450 -- all really without much noticeable pain at all. (I was surprised that the lights were really energy-consuming)

But now I want to reduce the amount of water we use.

For the last year we've been doing what we can to reduce the energy we use. We replaced all our windows and doors with double-glazed, high-efficiency versions. I also replaced all our lightbulbs with CFLs, and a few LEDs (but wasn't completely satisfied), I started putting compostable kitchen waste in the 'green bin', and used a meter called a "Kill-a-watt" to see where my electricity was being used (For example, this laptop uses 24w). With that info, I got two "Smart Strips" to shut off power to peripherals when the main electronic device was off/standby, to eliminate all the "vampire" power of a watt or ten just waiting for you to hit that "on" button on the remote.

1992. The Year of the Woman! The Democrats were going to nominate women to the US Senate from the two biggest states of the Union - Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein in California and Geraldine Ferraro in New York.

Boy, was I pissed when the other woman candidate (Elizabeth Holtzman) continually slimed Geraldine Ferraro's character until both their favorables were in the basement ... and they lost the nomination to Robert Abrams, who then lost to Republican Al D'Amato in the general in November.

Wow. Incessant rumormongering against your fellow party member leading to mutually-assured destruction in the general election.

I can't imagine Geraldine Ferraro being involved in a campaign that did that again...

2008. The Year of the Woman President! Or the Black President...  

Boy, am I going to be pissed?

My wife and I are flipping a house. We thought this was just the right time. We came into a no-money-down fixer-upper, a 1500" colonial with nice lines, about 30 years old.

We cashed out 100% of our sweat equity, repainted the whole thing inside and out. Floors are expensive, but my wife had the brilliant idea of using a wet paintbrush with tan paint to streak uneven lines in the floor - it looks just like hardwood, but for only the cost of paint. The wiring was substandard, so we just removed it. And it was missing a bathroom, so we'll add one to the attic. Instead of getting expensive shingles for the roof, we used sand paint. It's really almost the same. The appliances are repurposed from some other houses, too. In all, I think we've spent $50 on our flip.

Our open house is tomorrow, and we hope that we'll be as rich as George Bailey.

In the early days after my loss, I joined an online support group for women who have ended a pregnancy for medical reasons. When I joined it the site was a little over a year old, and had perhaps a couple hundred members. Recently there was a sad milestone there when the 600th member joined.

The fact the site counts its members got me thinking about abortion statistics for people like me. It has always bothered me that nobody seems interested in quantifying how many people are making devastating choices regarding wanted pregnancies. If people generally don't want to talk about infertility and pregnancy loss, then the thing they most don't want to talk about within that arena of topics is termination for medical reasons. People get so, so judgy and uncomfortable about everything to do with this subject.

To the left,
Everything you own in Iraq, to the left,
In Iraq that's your stuff
If you bought it Harry please don't spin accountablity
And keep talking that mess, that's fine
But could you walk and talk at the same time
And it's your name that is on Iraq
So remove your bags let me call you a cab

President Bush Addresses the Nation
The Oval Office

10:16 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iran, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.

On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Iran's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. More than 35 countries are giving crucial support -- from the use of naval and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics, to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense.

To all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. That trust is well placed.

My wife had a suggestion for solving which state gets the early primary, without ending up with all states trying to have their primary first.

Similarly weighted states (electorally) but diverse geographically would have their primaries on the same day, followed by the next group, and so on. Each election cycle the order would change.

She described it similarly to professional or college sports playoff schedules, which I thought was a very nice, clear way to describe it to any non-wonky political junkie.

That's the cause for this euphoria?

In past years, a 90% retention rate was normal. But recently the electoral atmosphere has become so favorable to incumbents, resulting in a staggeringly unfair 98%, nearly guaranteeing re-election for incumbents. What used to be normal now feels revolutionary.

We were looking forward to some street theater and performance art. The rumor was there would be some giant puppet of W or something. But probably it, and maybe the whole revolution, was called off because of rain. We did see a few papier-mache heads, though.

Not the most impressive of rallies. But hey, it's San Francisco, there'll be another one soon!

"But I only signed up to do two weekends a year, an' I've already done 'em," I say.

"Too much uppitytude!" Lurtz yells. "If you don't have the courage to stay the course, the Cannas will have won!"

"That don't make no sense," I says, "We want 'em ta grow." The Cannas are pretty yellowy and un-Canna-ey.

Stephanie Studebaker arrested for domestic violence

Hoo boy. Be prepared for a wave of projection... Edit: Dayton Daily News story, from Ord Avg Guy in comments. and this from BetterDonkeys.

Please contact your local friendly neighborhood Democratic Senator and possibly this guy and possibly this other guy why valuable Senate Committee seats (like the powerful Armed Services Committee) are being given to someone who is running against the Democratic candidate for Senate?

If Democrats aren't able to use Committee memberships as a lever of influence, why even bother having a party?