Climate change has been particularly unsettling this summer because it has felt like a constant reminder that it can’t be escaped. Even if you aren’t in Florida or Arizona or Greenland, even if you feel like you’re insulated up in Vermont or Canada – bam, 11 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Yep. And it worked all the way up to the Stanford presidency. Even now he is “only” a tenured professor.

It feels like the war has ground to a halt, where the only progress is in bodycount. Russia has failed to make meaningful advances lately, but Ukraine’s successes on the counteroffensive have also been extremely quiet.

Likely a direct response to the Crimean bridge, yes?

We are fortunate enough to have a large bank barn that has been a barn swallow nesting ground for years. Although we use the top floor and seal it off, we leave a gate open for the swallows in the ground level every year. It’s a joy to see 50+ of them on the telephone line in late summer.

This year our flock is significantly smaller, and two of them didn’t make it. Hopefully just a one-year anomaly, but deep down I doubt it.

Since China (with the US) is one of the major offenders of fossil fuels, I am curious as to whether we see more dramatic climate change impacts in China specifically, or if that impact is going to be diffused across the world. China is a big country.