TTLA is fortunate enough to be acquainted with Bill Patzert.
Patzert is a research scientist in oceanography at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He's also a nominee for the Best Quote in Town, an easy communicator who famously coined the term, "La Nina" to describe this condition.
(He's also likely one of the few people to have been dubbed a "prophet" by a .gov website.)
Patzert has of late been contributing comments to the New York Times'' great dot earth blog.
TTLA asked Patzert for some of his favorite dot earth posts; a few links are repeated below -- including this beat poem or song lyric ostensibly about tuna, and really, our peril:
- Ode to Charlie Tuna
- Climate Risk
- Human population
- CO(2) and Population
Meanwhile, Patzert was kind enough to offer up off the cuff a brand new poem to KCET.org readers, on the occasion of the first day of Spring, 2009. Ready? Here goes:
Has spring sprung?
What happened to March rains?
DWP water bill giving me pains.
Temperatures and heat waves zooming,
Desert coal plants and poppies blooming.
Freeways belching, CO2 rising,
Yikes, my 401K vaporizing.
Unfair? What do I care
I sense love in the air.
Spring has sprung!
Illustration copyright and courtesy Richard Nielsen, 2009
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Make Your Mouth Water
Soup is straightforward in theory. It's complexity lies in the execution... in how you build flavors and the first flavor layer can come from a mirepoix. Unlike "soup," "mirepoix" is fun to say and it's the colors of the Irish flag, which makes me like it even more.
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Gov. Brown Sworn In, Faces Tough Job
Our new/old Governor Jerry Brown is inaugurated into a job that promises to be more trouble than even this old pol can skillfully navigate.
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Empty
These are the empty days. Their hours are filled with blank stares past cubicle walls and through tinted windows. The end is not over and the beginning is far from started.
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Why Does it Take 20 Years to Build A Shopping Center in South Central?
The 20-year struggle to get a shopping center built at Slauson and Central reveals long-standing problems with the politics of development in L.A.
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Angela says :
Hey Jeremy,
Great to read some of your pieces. Maybe "Has Spring Sprung?" is not exactly e.e. cummings but I like it anyway. And it's not yet "the cruellest month."