# 25 Climate Change

Fox News would have you believe that Al Gore and his global warming ideas are all wet. The far right has taken to building igloos in Washington to show the world that he is crazy..After all the eastern part of the country has been inundated with record breaking cold, snow, or rain fall. What does he know! Strip him of his Nobel prize..

Here is what he knows along with thousands of the worlds foremost scientists. The earth is warmer now by 1 degree Fahrenheit and in the last century there are more greenhouse gases, CO2 and others, in our atmosphere then any time in the past 650,000 years. Before the industrial revolution in the 1700's there was an natural balance of green house gases in our atmosphere that were absolutely necessary for keeping the surface of the earth warm enough for habitation of all it's species. Now with the burning of fossil fuels by man, the increase of CO2 into the atmosphere is up 31 percent over pre-industrial levels. With this increase of CO2 the earth's temperature will continue to rise, creating extreme weather patterns and catastrophic natural occurrences, like fire, drought, and flooding.

This piece is about Climate Change. The greenhouses gases are heating up the atmosphere and that added temperature is heating the oceans causing the water to evaporate and rise as vapor into the atmosphere. There, it is moved by the gulf stream and other air masses around the planet. What goes up must come down and depending on the time of year the vapors convert back to either rain or snow and fall in great quantities to the earth. I've tried to show this reality in this Climate Change piece.

# 24 Looking Back In Time

I think I have now in week 24, gotten what Sandie means about this Time Project. Having just completed my 65th birthday with old friends and my kids and grand kids I have to say the passage of time is becoming more present. I still feel 32 which helps to keep me in the now and thankfully I don't have any pains which makes it much easy to forget my chronological age. This past month I had some really good quality time with my parents reminiscing about our early days as a family. Vivid memories have been reinforced by my sister and brothers. That coupled with the extraordinary birth of Winnie, my son's baby daughter, has had an amazing push pull effect. I'm struck by the many hats that we all wear; daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, worker, artist, and friend, all replete with a flood of memories..This piece speaks to 4 of those roles. The two wire figures with the blue gel, are me as a 65 year old with sharp edges and then a more voluptuous perkier 32 year old. The gel represents the 'now' in time. There are 5 blue wires attached to the wood that are family memories. The two smaller ones with the orange gels are my grand kids on one side, and me and my siblings as children on the other. The center piece with the blue and light green gels is me, and the two larger ocher colored outer sections are my parents on one side and my children on the other side. Thinking back it makes me feel extremely grateful to have lived such a full rich life with some many wonderful vital people in tow. To all of them I say thank you!

# 23 I'll miss you when you are gone..

Old age has a way of softening edges and replacing them with gentle appreciation, grace and stoicism. My parents and I have lived long enough to pass from the parent/child roles to now a wonderful adult friendship full of love and laughter. We just completed a book about our experiences as a close family living in Cuba before the revolution. My sister and I and both our parents worked for about 2 years reviewing old letters and journals plus hundreds of photos of our families 122 year history of living on that beautiful island. Our story was the last chapter of a long legacy. It was cathartic, poignant, sad and often funny, the reminiscing that took place about our shared experiences as a young family in an exotic land. When we were forced to leave our Cuban home for the States, we, in our stiff upper lip way, never discussed what it all meant..It wasn't until this book was written that we shared the huge loss that we all felt from having to leave our real home, friends, and the closeness of our family.

This little piece is of my parents. They are truly two parts of a strong whole. My father, at 89, the figure with the cane, though blind, navigates literary and figuratively my mother who is 87, and by extension the rest of our huge family. My mother a whirling ball of energy, is always scurrying off to give to others and create exotic gardens in her wake. The palm trees are a metaphor for the deep love of the tropics that we all carry with us.

# 18 Wobble

As the 'greenhouse' gases get trapped in the atmosphere and the earth heats up, the tundra in the Arctic is starting to melt. Icy temperatures have created permafrost that has locked peat and other organic materials into a rigid state for centuries. Now with the heating up of the earth particularly accelerated at the poles, the environment is changing. Methane long contained in the organic material is now being released into the atmosphere at an accelerated pace. That particular gas is much more harmful to the atmosphere then CO2 and as a result is speeding up the process of heating the planet. The hard tundra on which native villages and small towns are built are becoming unstable often causing the structures to collapse. This piece is about the melting of the permafrost which is shown below a structure in a wobbly state. The yellow gels are the warm air descending into the earth to met up and eventually melt the frozen blue ice.

# 22 Fossil Fuel Boys

To say that we are all getting fed up with the total inaction going on in Washington is an understatement. The obstructionists have been very effective in paralyzing the legislative process. They offer very little while instead hide behind their misguided, lying messages that drive fear in the populous. Funnily enough that isn't the last of it. Many of our elected officials are controled by the lobbying interests of the fossil fuel oil, gas and coal boys. Both parties are vulnerable and often bought.. This piece is about President Obama who is straddling both parties, democrats on the left in blue and republicans on the right in red. The black lines that are coming from the emissions and flames above are the Fossil Fuel boys who have hooked folks on both sides of the aisle.