Climate Lynx

Recently, we traveled to Montana to visit relatives. Yellowstone was close and the tourist season was only starting to spool up, so we considered it our chance to visit the world’s first national park. What we take for granted today, was only created in 1872.    As the world’s first national park, it does not take long to realize the world considers it a world park. There were people from everywhere on the globe.   Each summer Yellowstone National Park hosts 4 million visitors. It is hard to imagine a more enjoyable way to host foreign visitors than our national parks. As a side note, the idea of making our beautiful Porcupine Mountains a national park may be great way to put our jewel of a park on the world’s destination radar screen. Climate change for many who study it, can simply be a data set of rising temperatures, rising seas, melting ice and larger storms. We, in the UP, have been affected but not as rapidly as what the rest of the world is experiencing. Stati...

Living in Gogebic County we do not often think of the public transit option. Most people who use Mass Transit are urban dwellers who use subways, trains, and busses. For instance, 3 million Londoners use the “Tube” on an average day.   This scale of public transit has incredible benefits to both the person who uses the service and the person who drives. For the person who drives, can you imagine 3 million more cars hitting the road in London each day and the resultant congestion and gridlock? This could be played out in any major metropolitan area world-wide if the mass transit systems closed. And even if all these people could get to work, where would they park? Mass transit options are usually inexpensive, so the users of these systems have reliable, and cost-effective ways to get around. Vehicle ownership is not just purchasing title to a car, it also means fuel purchases, maintenance, insurance, registration, renting or building a place to park at home, and parking fees a...

  Competition brought out the overachievers on both the east and west coast this year.   There were 30 graduates from the east coast when we usually have 12. What an effort! They went by the names: Eta, Fay, Gonzalo, Marco, Iota, Vicky, Teddy, Kyle, Hanna, Arthur, Isais, Delta, Rene, Josephine, Theta, Nana, Cristobal, Edouard, Bertha, Wilfred, Zeta, Sally, Paulette, Omar, Laura, Dolly, Rene, Epsilon, Alpha, Gamma, and Beta. 13 could be considered high achievers when our yearly average is 6.   There were six overachievers when we would normally expect 3. It appeared the east coast class of 2020 would win by a mudslide. The West Coast finished strong. The class was huge, the largest ever with overachievers. The list included: Hopkins, Rockwell, Tatham, Morgan, Claremont, Hennessey, Markley, Green, Spanish, Bear, Creek, Pine, Box, Sheep, Cameron, Doe, and Elkhorn just to mention a few. It could be said the west coast class of heated activity was a tornado of pyrocumulonimb...

I remember my first real bike. It was a red, used, single speed, wide tire, heavy duty monster. It was a hand me down from my mom. Lucky it was overbuilt as we miniature bicycle Attila the Huns had to see how many of us could ride the steed simultaneously.   We also tried to set new land speed records on the neighborhood hill. Little did I know this was great training for my future flying career as bicycle riding taught me that doing stupid things can, and will, end up in a crash. Bicycles were also freedom. Do you remember your first bike ride? I and my friends were free to roam as far as our legs would take us. Freedom is a common theme with bicycling. In fact, the bicycle during the women’s suffrage movement was referred to as the “Freedom Machine”. Susan B Anthony in 1896 said about the bicycle, "I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance an...

And, maybe we should stop worrying about it and act. The other day I ran across a column in the Daily Globe by the reputable syndicated columnist Gene Lyons.   The title was, “Maybe we are Doomed” * I read it. Gene describes the state of the world’s health as analyzed by the UN extinction report.   Lucky for us in the U.P., when we walk outdoors, we are greeted by a thriving natural world. The job of the UN scientists is to analyze the various regions and species of the earth to get an overall health report. The scientists are thorough. I guess I would compare it to a Mayo Clinic routine physical which takes a minimum of three days. Have you ever gone to visit someone, and they look so bad you knew they needed medical help right now, so you made an appointment with a doctor? I have. The gentleman I made the appointment for and offered to give a ride refused to go for help. He died a couple weeks later.   Because we live in such a pristine oasis of the world, it ...