Spring Special With JPL's Bill Patzert
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 thiscondition.
(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:
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
