In Maine

We are at Jim and Mary's place in Owl's Head.  We are about to watch UNC play Iona University (New Rochelle, NY) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A 1-seed against a 16-seed - it should be an easy win for UNC but you can never take a team for granted. Last year, a 16-seed team beat Virginia in the first round - first time ever.

The trip over was messy - rain and snow, foggy, lots of getting splashed by trucks.  BUT, I had bought new windshield-wipers, and they are great. I splurged - $50 for the pair - and maybe it will be worth it.

On our way over we stopped at Antioch University in Keene, where John works, for a lecture by Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, who was lecturing by Skype (or something like Skype) - what is now called a "low-carbon" lecture - i.e., does not involve  the lecturer flying to the audience.  Her image was projected on the wall. She was an engaging lecturer, and was particularly effective in summarizing research on why people hold the views they do on climate change and global warming. Two basic ideas - political identity overwhelms scientific facts,* and hardly anyone  (both Democrats and Republicans) thinks climate change will affect them personally even when they admit it will profoundly affect others.  Dr. Hayhoe still holds out hope that we can do something to reverse the trend of global warming without giving up our American  highly consumer-oriented way of life, at least not right away. John asked the final question and he questioned her on that. Her response was that she recognized the problem - she realizes that her relatively modest lifestyle still requires "four planets" to sustain (and we only have one) - but that initially, in order to engage the apathetic public into making changes, we have to go after the "low-hanging fruit" like recycling, solar farms and electric cars, and not overwhelm people with draconian measures right off the bat. Sacrifices can come later.

Well, maybe.

(*This is not entirely fair. Democrats get the scientific facts completely.Their political identity predisposes them to listen to science. Republican ideology flies in the face of scientific facts even when those facts are staring them in the face. Theirs  is essentially a belief that combating climate change will curtail individual freedom, lead to stronger government and cost too much, and thus it must be denied. Some evangelicals believe that a loving God would not allow it to happen. On the other hand, a few others believe it presages the end times, and trying to reverse it will only delay the second coming).

Dr. Katherine Hayhoe

Back to the game:
The Heels trailed by 5 at the half! But now they are up by 17 with 4 minutes left.

Later:

They won. They'll play Univ. of Washington Sunday eve.