The Time is Now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weekends ago, we ran into some long-time friends at our local fresh fish restaurant.  Norman came by as he was leaving and he placed his hand on my shoulder in a loving and caring way.  "It must be very hard having to watch a  public felon try to lay waste to your life time of work in the wind and solar industry." (not to mention all my early work in water conservation and energy efficiency)

"He's slowed the Industry down here in the US of course", I said.  "But the World is moving full steam ahead with renewable energy, stationary battery storage and the electrification of transportation. He is just making America greatly anachronistic." But I added, "however, his technological speed bump has slowed the World down in controlling climate change in a critical way."

Indeed the most recent peer reviewed report states:

A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) indicates that climate change is accelerating, with 2024 marking the first year that global temperatures exceeded 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The report, which analyzes data from 101 countries, highlights record-breaking temperatures, greenhouse gas concentrations, and sea levels. It also emphasizes the irreversible impacts of climate change, particularly on weather patterns and ecosystems. 

 

Key findings from the WMO report 

Record-breaking temperatures:

2024 was the warmest year in the observational record, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. 

  

Accelerating climate change:

The report shows that climate change is intensifying, with some impacts becoming irreversible over centuries. 

 

Increased extreme weather events: 

The report links increased extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and flooding, to climate change. 

 

Irreversible impacts: 

The report highlights the growing concern of irreversible changes to the planet, including rising sea levels and melting glaciers. 

 

Social and economic upheaval:

The report also notes the massive social and economic consequences of extreme weather events, impacting livelihoods and economies. 

 

The report underscores the urgent need for action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) stating that "climate crunch time is here". The WMO is calling for global cooperation to address the escalating risks and safeguard the planet and its inhabitants.

 

It was 10 years ago that I went to Paris as the Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission in Austin, Texas, along with our Mayor, a City Council Member, and a County Commissioner.  There, most of the Cities and Nations on Earth agreed to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (well below 2 degrees C) to avoid the worst of what the loss of a stable climate would bring to the almost 8 billion inhabitants of our spaceship.  

 

And now we have the loss of a stable government in the US.

 

And we are shooting well beyond our International Agreement even as the Drumph once again withdraws from it. 

 

I would like to say that such a recoil from the growing global understanding of the challenges of climate change was unexpected.  But it was not.  I wrote about it 25 years ago in my book Lightland, Climate Change and the Human Potential.

 

I warned that the Prometheans,  (the Worshippers of Fire) would fight a great battle with the Olympians. (the believers in Light). This great battle called the Titanomachy would result in Apollo and his twin sister Artemis winning the struggle for humankind to evolve to a more advanced state where freedom and justice become twin pillars of a new world of art and beauty,  music, and science.

 

The story was originally told by Hesiod in his Theogony. 

 

So, as the Republicans leave early for a long holiday to avoid a vote to release  the pedophile file and our top intelligence officer declares that the President with the least scandals in a hundred years did something very ominous in determining whether or not the newly elected failed Casino owner was Krasnov,  we find that our government is not governing, but on a massive heist of the nation and its riches even as it accelerates its retribution tour. 

 

Soon, we will go from an unstable government to something new for Americans, but known on many continents in many ages.

 

A failed government.  

 

And then add climate failure. And that may very likely result in a far right authoritarian regime that is supported by the oligarchs of our time.  

 

The time is now to get in front of it.  Not just the fight for climate, but the fight for freedom and Democracy. Add a little dose of AI and the urgency is complete.

 

I'm in the last pages of Timothy Snyder's  new book On Freedom. 

 

On page 231, he writes, "The space between what is and what ought to be is where we roam as free people, extending the borderland of the unpredictable. We decide which values to affirm, in what combination, for what reasons, and at what time.  Then we try again. With practice, we attain our own human form of grace."

 

And as we  struggle to be something more than what we have become, we will need to follow an Olympian blueprint to create an ethical and prosperous global community.

 

It is not a choice,

 

It is our Clear Path. 

 

And it is our grace. 

 

The Time is Now. 

 

 

 

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The Valley of the Sun

 

We  didn't spend the New Year this year in the mountains of Catorce, or in DF, or in Vegas, or on Times Square, or in London or Paris. This year we were in the Valley of the Sun. And it was delightful.  The weather was just about perfect and our accommodations were the best.  For some reason, my little family decided months ago not to get too far away this year and instead bring in the New Year with my cousin and his family of three boys, two wives, and 2 grandchildren in his large sprawling old adobe home in the center of Phoenix.

We stayed in his large guest house below his personal office. And it was a fortunate thing that we didn't make big plans this year, for there was a powerful event just over the horizon.

Beginning on Thanksgiving Day, where we were planning for 14 family members, the dark shadow of uncertainty fell on us all as my partner's  87 year old mother had a medical emergency in the back bedroom. 

As usual, the Fire Department beat EMS to our tree covered home on Austin's Shoal Creek.  In fact, two firetrucks, two EMS vehicles, and two police vehicles arrived.  And remarkably, they managed to get a pulse, get her breathing though intubation, and rush her to the emergency room just 2 miles away. I stayed at home while my partner and her brother followed the ambulance.

Within a few hours, we received news that she was alive, stabilized, and in intensive care. That evening we had a somber but loving thanksgiving dinner almost as if nothing had changed.  Over the days that followed, Mamo was able to come off the respirator, and begin to recover from the event on Thanksgiving Day.  For almost three weeks, she had good days and bad days and often spoke with clarity on the good days.  But she was needing more and more help breathing from the non invasive respirator.

By the 15th of December, it was decided to move her to Christopher House. There she spent her  last days with all of her 7 children and their partners, 5 of her grand children, and Uncle Herb from Seattle. He was the younger brother of Jerry, her beloved first husband. Always a sports fan, Mary watched her Boise State Broncos play UCLA as she enjoyed her last supper with those she loved.  They sang songs and Uncle Herb sang the Lord's Prayer. Mary even managed to sing for a moment.

Early on the 17th, she breathed her last breath with her oldest daughter, her third son, and his daughter right there with her.  It was a passing of love and beauty.

With Mary's passing, we tried to get Christmas going.  We strung the house lights, and we got our Christmas tree up.  But the lights would not work and it was too late to buy more.  We finished the tree with the only box of lights we could find from our local CVS.  But the tree wasn't just dim, it was somber.

And that was as it should be.

We spent Christmas with good friends at the Four Seasons.  Cousin Lisa flew in from Seattle. We got the new rug installed in the Breezeway. We lit the fireplaces on both sides of our inside/outside house living space.  It was good weather, but it was somber.

Two days after Christmas day, we made our way to the Valley of the Sun.

There we played pickle ball on the flashy Phoenix Country Club courts. We played croquet on my cousins super flat yard with golf course quality grass. But for culture, I had insisted that we go up the mountain to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.

The excursion was well worth the time invested.  Wright's desert laboratory is now a world heritage site. It had been 30 years since I had visited it in my forties.  During that time, I was building my City of the Future model called Argonon and I was reviewing the city plans of many of our great architects.

But I didn't really get Taliesin West, even though I had used his low ceilings running into a fireplace design in a recent renovation and I was pleased with the result. This time, Taliesin was different.  It's modern design at almost 100 years old is striking. And remember, this was his winter home, in Summer he returned to Taliesin in Wisconsin.

Looking from the South West corner of the site, you can see the double 345 KVA lines the power company put right in front of his magnificent view. It was these lines that prompted the 90 year old Wright to tell the city council that if they did this, he would move from Phoenix.  His partner Olgivanna followed up telling them they were not about to move.

When Frank passed in 1959, he had just seen his last creation come to life.  The Guggenheim Museum had just opened.

But the passing of Frank Lloyd Wright and of Mary McMaster is not the story.

The story is the legacy they left us.

As we all live in the Valley of the Sun.

 

 

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The Bay of the Wise

 

It was a big Roevember and it's not quite over yet.  Hopefully, the D's will win the runoff in Georgia and actually pick up a seat in the Senate.  It will be quite a repudiation of the party that is out of control. Unfortunately, they did manage to eke out control of the house by a few votes.  Had it not been for Long Island and the  lower Hudson River along with  the seats that DeSantis gerrymandered, the table would have been turned. So it wasn't a wave or tsunami, it was more like a light rain.  But it will make things soggy and the House will be a mess.

But as the election began to show itself, another event in Africa was convening.  It was COP27.  And if you don't speak diplomatic acronym that's the  27th Conference of Parties for the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.^[1] It was signed by 154 states at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. Its original secretariat was in Geneva but relocated to Bonn in 1996.^[2] It entered into force on 21 March 1994.^[3]

As for COP 27, here is the press release:

UN Climate Change News, 20 November 2022 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 closed today with a breakthrough agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters.

“This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.”

Set against a difficult geopolitical backdrop, COP27 resulted in countries delivering a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The package also strengthened action by countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as boosting the support of finance, technology and capacity building needed by developing countries.

 I had several friends who went.  One was our Mayor and the other was our County Commissioner from Travis County.  We had dinner this weekend and the results of her report are much worse than the  meeley mouthed milk toastie  official Press Release.

Here are the five main accomplishments from Reuters:

FUND FOR "CLIMATE JUSTICE"

After years of resistance from rich governments, nations for the first time agreed to set up a fund to provide payouts to developing countries that suffer "loss and damage" from climate-driven storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.

Despite being the standout success of the talks, it will likely take several years to hammer out the details over how the fund will be run, including how the money will be dispersed and which countries are likely to be eligible.

FOSSIL FUEL FLOW

The final COP27 deal drew criticism from some quarters for not doing more to rein in climate-damaging emissions, both by setting more ambitious national targets and by scaling back use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

 While the deal text called for efforts to phase down use of unabated coal power and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, some countries had pushed to phase out, or at least phase down, all fossil fuels.

But from the opening speeches to the gaveling of the final deal, the use of fossil fuels was affirmed for the near future.

President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates - host of next year's COP28 climate summit - said his country would continue to deliver oil and gas "for as long as the world is in need".

Oil company CEOs were on hand at this year's summit, after having been pushed to the margins at COP26. Natural gas chiefs were billing themselves as climate champions, despite gas companies having faced lawsuits in the United States over such claims.

Nevertheless, some electricity-poor nations in Africa argued for their right to develop their natural gas reserves, even as they face increasing climate impacts such as drought.

Other Highlights.

 "BRAZIL IS BACK"

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was greeted by roaring crowds as he declared "Brazil is back" in the global climate fight, and vowed to host COP30 in 2025 in the Amazon region.

 U.S., CHINA RELATIONSHIP REKINDLED

A critical precursor for the climate talks' success happened far away from the Red Sea locale.

As the COP entered its second week, China's President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Indonesia for the G20 where the heads of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters agreed to restart cooperation on climate change after a months-long hiatus due to tensions over Taiwan.

BILLIONS IN PRIVATE FINANCE (BUT NOT TRILLIONS... YET)

The world of finance has failed to provide enough money to help countries cut their carbon emissions and adapt their economies to the changes wrought by global warming, yet the COP27 talks suggest change is coming.

Among the steps likely to free up more cash is a plan to reform leading public lenders such as the World Bank so that they can take more risk and lend more money. By doing so, countries hope more private investors will join in.

For me, the super take away is that the whole show was sponsored by Coca Cola.

My guests for dinner were alarmed at the pace of progress and they have been to at least five of these things over the years.  They didn't see how the current pace was going to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees C.  In fact neither does this group. This from last year's report:

"The world's largest-ever climate change report has been published, setting out the most up-to-date assessment of how the climate crisis will impact the world over the coming decades.

It has found that the average global temperature is likely to rise by more than 1.5°C within the next 20 years, surpassing the limit settled on in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

This warming will result in more frequent and widespread extreme weather events - including heatwaves, heavy rainfall, drought, wildfires and ocean acidification all of which have already been increasing in severity around the planet.

'Today's IPCC Report is a code red for humanity,' says António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.

'The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.

'Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.'

In all predicted scenarios, we are now expected to release enough carbon emissions to cause the planet to warm by 1.5°C by 2040, although with the current trajectory of emissions this will likely be closer to 2034.

The past five years have been the hottest on record since the 1850s. The recent rate of sea-level rise is nearly triple that of 1901-1971 and human influence has caused the global retreat of glaciers since the 1990s.   

 

It's the kind of thing that makes you want to pack up the kids and go to Sharm El Sheeikh

 

Which by the way, 

Means  

Bay of the Wise. 

We Wish.

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A House on Fire

We've had an unexpected run of beautiful winter days for the last 10 days of the year with temps running from the low sixties to the low eighties.  And we took full advantage of it in our outside addition that we built over the last few years in contemplation of Covid.  Many nights were so warm, we didn't even use the outdoor fireplace.  On Christmas eve, we not only shared gifts and chatted deep into the evening, we had a sit down dinner for eight on the east deck, complete with fine wines and baked salmon from the Northwest, where the weather is far colder than the region generally receives.

Meanwhile, strong winds and dry conditions burned down over a 1000 homes in Colorado. This from the NYTs:

"The fires began on Thursday morning and spread with astonishing speed across suburban neighborhoods in Boulder County. The authorities said around 6,200 acres were burned.

Sheriff Joe Pelle of Boulder County said on Thursday that he believed the fires had been started by downed power lines. However, investigators have not found any evidence of that.

While wildfires usually occur in Colorado’s mountainous region, far from where most of its residents live, the Marshall fire attacked drought-stricken suburban neighborhoods instead. "

The week before that, winter tornadoes attacked Kentucky. This from WLKY:

"Houses ripped from foundations, cars flipped and thrown, several lives lost and many unaccounted for.

The rare December tornadoes that ripped through Kentucky, and several other states, left communities across western Kentucky completely devastated. It is likely the worst storm to ever hit the state."

And of course, California has experienced another record year of fire. This from Wikipedia:

The 2021 California wildfire season is an ongoing series of wildfires that have burned across the state of California. As of December 16, 2021, a total of 8,619 fires have been recorded, burning 2,569,009 acres (1,039,641 ha) across the state.^[1] At least 3,629 buildings have been destroyed by the wildfires, and at least seven firefighters and two civilians have been injured battling the fires.^[1]

The wildfire season in California experienced an unusually early start amid an ongoing drought and historically low rainfall and reservoir levels.^[2] In January 2021 alone, 297 fires burned 1,171 acres (4.74 km²) on nonfederal land according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is almost triple the number of fires and more than 20 times the acreage of the five-year average for January.^[3][2] The January fires were exacerbated by unseasonably strong Santa Ana winds, and some of them burned in the same areas as previous fires like the CZU Lightning Complex.^[4]

The long term trend is that wildfires in the state are increasing due to climate change in California.^[5][6] In terms of the amount of fires burned, the 2021 season has been outpacing the 2020 season, which itself was the largest season in the state's recorded history. As of July 11, more than three times as many acres have burned compared to the previous year through that date, with drought, extreme heat, and reduced snowpack contributing to the severity of the fires."

We are warming in the US at .16 degrees F per decade according to the EPA:

• Since 1901, the average surface temperature across the contiguous 48 states has risen at an average rate of 0.16°F per decade (see Figure 1). Average temperatures have risen more quickly since the late 1970s (0.31 to 0.54°F per decade since 1979). Eight of the top 10 warmest years on record for the contiguous 48 states have occurred since 1998, and 2012 and 2016 were the two warmest years on record.
• Worldwide, 2016 was the warmest year on record, 2020 was the second-warmest, and 2011–2020 was the warmest decade on record since thermometer-based observations began. Global average surface temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.17°F per decade since 1901 (see Figure 2), similar to the rate of warming within the contiguous 48 states. Since the late 1970s, however, the United States has warmed faster than the global rate.
• Some parts of the United States have experienced more warming than others (see Figure 3). The North, the West, and Alaska have seen temperatures increase the most, while some parts of the Southeast have experienced little change. Not all of these regional trends are statistically significant, however.

 Averaged across land and ocean, the 2020 surface temperature was 1.76° F (0.98° Celsius) warmer than the twentieth-century average of 57.0°F (13.9°C) and 2.14˚F (1.19˚C) warmer than the pre-industrial period (1880-1900).

So what is the big deal with temperatures going up by a degree or two? At 32 degrees, the 2 degree difference is the difference between rain and snow and a navigable waterway and unpredictable ice.

Imagine an ancient culture that lives on a bountiful lake that never froze over until one day it did. Even the elders had never seen such a thing. All at once, their food supply was only available by ice hole fishing. Their canoes were frozen in place along with their nets. The plants they harvested were now frozen and limp in their beds. Their world had changed with a seemingly insignificant 2% change in the temperature.

Now with our 2% change, a warming of 2 degrees, who would have imagined that the forest in our temperate regions would begin to combust, to catch on fire, and to change the landscapes that our elders have known for generations.

The giant redwoods...gone.

The 100 year old homes nestled deep in the woods...gone.

The towns that grew up in the cooling shade of arboreal splendor...gone.

The cities that flourished alongside our great forested areas...gone too?

Our house is on fire,

and the firemen brought an axe.

 

 

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Grow a Pair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In 2017, with the help of some seasoned professionals, I founded the Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance.  Now, in our 4th year, we have almost 1200 members and we recently received our fifth grant.  

You may say that you care about doing something about climate change, but if you are not driving an electric car right now, you are fooling yourself. I know that's hard, but so is the future we are facing.

The 26th Conference of Parties for The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting Glasgow this November was a modest success to some.  These are the accomplishments:

Delegates forged agreements that strengthen ambition in the three pillars of collective climate action.

Adaptation was the object of particular emphasis during the deliberations. Parties established a work programme to define the global goal on adaptation, which will identify collective needs and solutions to the climate crisis already affecting many countries. The Santiago Network was further strengthened by elaborating its functions in support of countries to address and manage loss and damage. And the CMA approved the two registries for NDCs and Adaptation Communications, which serve as channels for information flowing towards the Global Stocktake that is to take place every five years starting in 2023. 

Finance was extensively discussed throughout the session and there was consensus in the need to continue increasing support to developing countries. The call to at least double finance for adaptation was welcomed by the Parties. The duty to fulfill the pledge of providing 100 billion dollars annually from developed to developing countries was also reaffirmed. And a process to define the new global goal on finance was launched.

 On mitigation, the persistent gap in emissions has been clearly identified and Parties collectively agreed to work to reduce that gap and to ensure that the world continues to advance during the present decade, so that the rise in the average temperature is limited to 1.5 degrees. Parties are encouraged to strengthen their emissions reductions and to align their national climate action pledges with the Paris Agreement.

In addition, a key outcome is the conclusion of the so-called Paris rulebook. An agreement was reached on the fundamental norms related to Article 6 on carbon markets, which will make the Paris Agreement fully operational.  This will give certainty and predictability to both market and non-market approaches in support of mitigation as well as adaptation.  And the negotiations on the Enhanced Transparency Framework were also concluded, providing for agreed tables and formats to account and report for targets and emissions.

This sounds like well meaning diplomatic gobblety-gook to me. The best thing they agreed to is to meet every year from now on.

I was at the  climate meeting in Paris. As Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission, I was part of the delegation from Austin. That was six years ago, and after talking with close friends who attended this year's conference, I now tend to agree with this alternative view from Job One for Humanity.

1. The Global Emergency is far worse than the government, the media and UN Panel on Climate Change are telling us. 

2 .We are long past the point of individual actions alone saving us.  Only worldwide concerted action and mass mobilization can save us from extinction.

3. Because of internal climate system momentum factors, human inertia factors and 40 years of failed fossil fuel reduction, we have only until 2025 to maintain realistic control of our global warming future.

4. The rate of global warming consequences will soon start rising exponentially instead of linearly.

5. Now that critical global warming tipping points are being crossed, many systems like Arctic sea ice, glaciers, oxygen producing plankton, and thawing frozen tundra will begin to collapse almost completely.

6.  If we do not make the required reductions in time, Mother Nature will painfully make them for us.

7.  Our ancestors have unfortunately left us with mental and emotional hardwiring that does not recognize or respond well to distant, complex, or slowly moving threats.

The four critical tipping points are these:

The 2025 carbon 425-450 ppm tipping point  (the first extinction triggering level)

The 2042-2067  carbon 500 ppm carbon level (the acceleration tipping point)

The 2063-2072 carbon 600 ppm massive methane release tipping point.

The 2072 carbon 750 ppm runaway global warming tipping point.

If we pass the  four critical deadlines and tipping points, we will experience mass human, animal, and biological extinction. We will also experience widespread economic, social and political chaos in the lifetimes of virtually all of us.

The solution is not that complicated and it is not expensive.

We must begin to see that the atmospheric carbon that will kill us is a  resource.

We need for almost all of our electricity to be non carbon renewables.

We need almost all transportation to be electric.

We need the entire earth to grow a beard and to stop shaving the beards we will need to survive.

So show your neighbors and your children that you care 

and go buy or lease a fun, fast, reliable electric vehicle.

Grow a pair.

 

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The Way We Were

 

It seems like a year or maybe more since this dang Covid stuff started.  It hasn't even been six months.  My partner said it was a little like Ground Hog Day.  I said Ground Hog Day is good.  That's what we want.  We're alive, relatively content, and we are even beginning to see a few people in the flesh instead of on Zoom.  We've convinced ourselves that we can eat outdoors with another couple that's as insular as we are.  We run a fan across the table between us.  We toast with arms fully outstretched.

Almost always we cook outside too.  We've honed our skills to start cooking the corn or the sweet potatoes early, then we add the meat and the other vegetables the last 15 minutes or so.  Only rarely do folks even come into the house. We drink good wine, sip good tequila, and enjoy a $500.00 meal for about $100.00.

I've written two songs over the last few months.  One is "Corona Virus".

Corona Virus
It wants to eat you
Corona Virus
It wants to teach you
Corona Virus
it wants to bring your town down.

The bridge goes,

We have got to learn to live together
We have got to see that all is one
We have got to  be and grieve together
Till the killings done
and the Earth is one.  

There are several verses but you get the idea.

The other song is "And Time it rolls On"
It's a love song with a very melancholy chorus.
Corona is guttural and scraping... Sounds like a Tom Waits song.
"Time it rolls on" is actually very pretty.

Several months ago, instead of just looking at the ceiling dealing with all the uncertainty in my head, I started writing another book. When I finish it, it will be my fifth.  Now, I get up 3 to 4 nights a week and work on it.  Much of it is written at Four in the Morning.

Meanwhile, we've started converting our carport into a nice screened in porch that connects with the outdoor dining room.  I think it's reasonable to say that we will be seeing our friends outside for quite a while longer and it will be nice to have a large screened in area with nice couches and even an outdoor fireplace.  We are also converting some outdoor closets into sleeping lofts just in case someone needs to spend the night.

Later this week, Dana will once again be on the hospital service.  This is the scary part of her job. Here, she is on the front line.  Her picture with all her garb on looks just like all the other pictures we see of health care workers risking their lives and families during this time we thought would never come.

She comes home, tosses her clothes into the washer, detoxes her shoes, and takes an outdoor shower down at the guest house on the creek.  Only then does she come into the house. Last week, I bought a $45.00 UVC bulb for the return air of our air-conditioning system.  I called around looking for one and only found one.  The guy at the AC supply store told me that as soon as he gets a pallet of them, they fly out the door in a day.

Texas surpassed New York just this weekend in total cases.  Most of last week, Texas had the most deaths of any state.  Here in Austin, where R's are outnumbered 2 to 1, we wear mask without mumbling mind numbing inanities about our rights.  Still the governor says they are optional.  Why don't we just go ahead and make stop signs optional too?

My purpose here is not some version of Tammy Wynette, where I feel like crap and I just want to share it with you.  Actually, it's just the opposite.  It's to point out that we are changing.  You are changing.  "Corona Virus,  it wants to break you, it wants to bake you, it wants to bring you to ground."

We are changing our thoughts on justice.  And Black lives must Matter!

We are changing the way we work.  How much we go out.  How much we drive.  Where and how we eat. The way we conduct business.  The way we go to the Doctor.  The way we shop.  The way we buy what we want.  The way we have it delivered.

As the poet says, The Times they are a changing:

Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'

About 46 years ago, I woke up and came to the conclusion that humankind was on a collision course with itself.  For whatever reason, I got myself together and made a life of trying to stop it. And somehow I divined that the big year would be 2020.  When it came, I was in San Francisco with my family. I hoped I would be wrong.

I'm not.

Noam Chomsky said it well on "Democracy Today" yesterday.

I mean, at every level, we are racing madly towards total catastrophe under the leadership of sociopathic fanatics. It’s as if some evil demon decided to take over the human species and drive them to self-destruction.

We can't return to the way we were.

We must evolve to the way we will be.

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Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance

Here is the opening of the first Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance Newsletter.

Message from TxETRA Board Chair, Michael Osborne

About a year ago, I came to the conclusion that the time for a statewide electric transportation advocacy group was just about here.

Well, after a dinner in late October, a lunch in December, about 10 interim board meetings in Jan, Feb, and March, and a fabulous board meeting and founding reception at the Austin Club on April 6th, TxETRA was born.

Thank you to all of you who have helped make this happen. I'm especially grateful to Mark Kapner, Dale Bula, Joep Meyer, Cary Ferchill, Austin Energy, The Wind Coalition, Public Citizen, Janis Bookout of EarthDay ATX, and the Energy Foundation.  It goes without saying just how much rocket fuel our Executive Director, Tom "Smitty" Smith, has poured into this effort. We have also been blessed with the help of Stacey Abel, our Policy and Communications Director.

This spring alone, we have met or made presentations to ERCOT, LCRA, CPS, AECT, OMCOR, the Chairman of the PUC, Plug-in Texas, the National Alliance for Transportation Electrification, and a host of elected officials who will be critical to our effort in preparing Texas roads and infrastructure for the transportation transformation that is on the near horizon.

We are over 70 transportation professionals, utility execs, car and truck manufacturers, and academic thinkers, along with electric owners and activists who want to work together to shape the future.

Our Mission is to guide and accelerate the adoption of electrical transportation in all its forms in the most cost effective way providing maximum benefit to the Citizens of Texas.

If you haven't yet joined us, I hope you will.

Please enjoy the 4-minute video (below) from our TxETRA Launch on April 6th where we were joined by Phil Jones, Executive Director of the national Alliance for Transportation Electrification, Austin Mayor Steve Adler, and a host of other distinguished leaders who are applauding our efforts.





Our Executive director Tom Smith says it well:

"We are at the frontier of developing new ways of transporting ourselves across Texas and we need your help to make it happen. Electrified transportation is growing rapidly all over the world because it lowers operating costs and reduces emissions, while creating new business and manufacturing opportunities.

It’s already cheaper to own and fuel an electric vehicle - and it will be cheaper to buy an electric vehicle by 2025. The transformation in how we transport ourselves is largely being driven and developed in Asia and Europe, and so the change will occur with or without policy changes in the U.S.  How Texas responds will determine whether we are in the driver’s seat or in the back of the bus.

As battery technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, people are turning to electric vehicles for health, environmental and economic reasons. Moreover, a recent AAA customer survey revealed that 20% of American drivers indicated that their next car would be an electric vehicle. We believe it is our responsibility to put the infrastructure in place to be ready for this future that is racing quickly toward us."

Yesterday I drove my "S" to San Antonio to see a dear friend who had just received a new set of LUNGS at University Hospital.  Going to the other side of SA on a 102 degree day made the 85 mile drive a 105 mile drive with the Air Conditioner going strong.  With my 235 mile range, that made the return trip a little close, so I stopped at the super convenient super charger in San Marcos behind the outlet mall at mile marker 200 on Centerpoint road. I had about 60 miles left.

I plugged in and watched through the window as the charge took hold. As it reached 100 KW,  I walked off to the POLO shop.  In 15 minutes or so, I bought a new Ralph Lauren sport coat and came back to a car with 180 miles of charge.

Going electric is different.  And you don't realize what a healthy luxury it is to NEVER stop at a nasty, stinking, oil soaked gas station again...until you experience it.

You can even get a little shopping done.

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