Today we held our regular Tuesday CLEAR staff meeting. For the first time in a while the meeting wasn’t cancelled due to looming deadlines, stress, panic, conflicting meetings or anything else. Even in these social distancing times, everyone “made” it despite being all over the state, juggling households with small children, “distance learning” efforts, dogs […]
Ruminations
Ponderings, rants and raves.
Projections Matter, Especially on Election Night
The first thing I teach someone about maps is that they are more than just lines and direction on a page, screen, or device. Maps convey information. Maps tell a story. But maps can also be deceiving. Consider for a minute, election maps. If you’re reading this blog post then you survived, if just barely, […]
What do you do after you scoop?
On my drive home last week I saw two of my neighbors walking their dogs. One of the dogs had just done his business and the owner dutifully scooped it up with a doggy doodie bag dangling from the dog’s leash. Excellent, I thought, he knows that dog poop left on the street can be […]
Can You Hear Me Now? Smartphone Maps (that work!) Off the Beaten Path
It’s summer. Family vacation time. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for this all year. We had planned to take the family west for two weeks in the mountains. Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Off the beaten path. Round up the kids, pack up the camping […]
Butts on the Beach
Butts on the Beach This past weekend, while stuck in traffic for 20 minutes, I noticed four different people throw 6 cigarette butts out the widow and onto the highway. That, and the fact that I am lazy, moved me to re-post something I wrote several years ago. Recently a columnist in a local Southeastern […]
The Journey from Airsick Bag to Dizzying Activity
April 15 marked the 15th anniversary of the founding of CLEAR. On that date in 2002, the UConn Board of Trustees approved CLEAR as an official university center. (It may surprise some of you to know that, at UConn at least, you can’t just hang up a shingle and call yourself an institute or center, […]
Sunrise, sunset and the Equation of Time
The days are finally getting longer. It is always a slow, subtle and most welcome change from the days of leaving for work in the dark and arriving home again in the dark. Since the winter solstice on December 21, 2016 when the North Pole is tilted furthest from the sun the amount of daylight […]
Deny the Deniers
Last fall I thought about using this title to write about denying federal aid for climate change related disasters to states with administrations that deny climate change. To those governors and legislatures who take no or little action to prepare for sea level rise, increased precipitation events, more intense storms, droughts, etc. that science tells […]
Drought in Connecticut? Who knew?
Connecticut is not the first place that would likely come to mind if I asked you to come up with a part of the country that experiences drought; the desert southwest and California might typically be first on the list. However, southern New England has received less than normal amounts of precipitation for the past […]
New Stormwater Regulations Spur a Look Back
Our family gatherings often involve interesting discussions (aka arguments) on politics, religion or other fun topics. Occasionally the conversations stray into the environmental arena. Although many in my family argue against “big government” getting in the way of everything, they have had to agree that some federal regulations like the Clean Water act and the […]