Welcome to The Measure

What is The Measure?

The Measure is a (hopefully) weekly blog about issues relating not only to global warming and the science behind it, but also to the energy sector as well.  One of the things I've learned from teaching a course on energy and the environment is that you can't talk about global warming, especially with regard to what to do about it, without also talking about energy, the way we obtain it, and how the way we obtain it is changing.

Who am I?

I spent 16 years doing graduate and postdoctoral research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, one of the world’s leading centers of climate research.  My work focused on aerosols, which are an important but poorly understood piece in the global climate change puzzle.  Since I left GISS in 2012, I have been teaching at a number of colleges on Long Island.  I primarily teach physics, but I have also taught courses on climate, energy and the environment, and meteorology.

Why am I doing it?

I am starting this blog because I believe that discussing global warming in an informal setting is a useful way to raise awareness on this very important issue, and better awareness in general is a necessary first step to producing meaningful action.  A very good article from last fall talked about how the movement for action on global warming could learn a lesson from the marriage equality movement by making a priority out of communicating with open-minded people. Indeed, people’s opinions on marriage equality changed quite a bit over a relatively short period of time, in spite of the politics.  The analogy holds only to an extent, though, because global warming does not yet directly affect people the way marriage equality does (with some exceptions, most notably among residents of Miami Beach).  But I do think that global warming will affect a lot more people very directly in the years to come, and if we wait until then to act decisively it will be too late.  The urgency of the issue has been further punctuated by the results of the 2016 election; the incoming President, and many of the people he has chosen to serve in his Cabinet, do not believe and do not accept the basic science of global warming.  As there is no point in looking for leadership on this issue from them, it is that much more important to work from the ground level up in order to change things in a positive way.

What do I hope to achieve?

I would like not only to raise awareness on issues concerning global warming and the energy sector, but also to start a dialogue.  This dialogue will start with my Facebook friends and people who know me, but all are welcome.  In a perfect world, the political statements made on this blog would be limited.  I realize that's not realistic, however, when simply acknowledging the established science of global warming is taken as a political statement.  Democrats and Republicans should be arguing over how to best allocate resources to address the problem, instead of arguing over whether something that is in fact quite real and serious is, in fact, quite real and serious.  I welcome and encourage discussion and debate, and I hope to promote better understanding of this issue (at least within my small circle of friends and acquaintances).

What do I expect?

I would like polite and respectful discourse.  People are welcome to disagree with me or anybody else who comments on the site, but I would hope that people respect those with differing opinions.  I hope to make this blog something people can learn from and use to better organize their thoughts about this important issue.  Global warming is something that needs to be addressed with some degree of urgency, and while that's not going to happen at the top level any time soon, I believe it can happen at the grass roots if people inform themselves and then take decisive action.

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