Scarily warm. The peach and apple trees are budding, which will mean a catastrophe for the orchards if we don't get a cold snap soon to close the buds back up.

I don't think it's chicken-little stuff, Gnu. I think we need to start paying attention--fast. The body of evidence is getting pretty darned convincing. Read the new book "Eco-Economoy" Developing an Economy for the EArth," by Lester R. Brown. Brown founded Worldwatch Institute in the 1970s and has now formed the Earth Policy Institute to try to spread the word about the necessity of changing our energy and water-wasting habits a.s.a.p. and developing a new economic approach that figures the cost to the environment into the price of goods and services. He's a MacArthur fellow and an exceedingly well-respected thinker about agriculture, the economy and related issues. He lines out a pretty convincing argument.

It's not fun to contemplate what the various environmental depredations add up to, and it's certainly easier to hit the "denial" button and call people alarmists when they try to draw attention to the issues, as kat has done, but ultimately it's our children and their children who are going to pay the price for our unwillingness to make some fundamental changes right now.

think I'll go plant a tree or two ...

ww