Dog Days

The past few days have been really crazy, but since I am not going to the field and don't have to work at Dash today I can relax a little. I will probably spend most of the day with Ricky, working, and in the afternoon go to the gym at Uni then pilates at the Canberra Dance Theatre. *Somehow Seth and I ended up with a set of 10 extra classes at CDT, and since each class costs about $12 we won't complain!*

I can't believe how cool and rainy it has been! I think the lows have been below 10 degrees celcius and the highs only in the low 20s. Seth and I feel very fortunate that the weather has been so incredibly nice. Doing field work, biking, and running outside are very pleasant when there are clouds in the sky and the temps are low/moderate. This can all be attributed to the La Nina summer, and it is a reward for suffering through last year's extremely hot and dry El Nino conditions.

Despite the recent rain, most of the country is still experiencing severe water shortages caused by 10 years of extreme drought. Also, in contradition to the cool summer and winter, 2007 has been one of the top 10 hottest years on record.

I hope the current cool/wet conditions don't fool people into fogetting about climate change. Most of the Australians I have met are concerned about the state of the environment (I don't know if this is because I mostly associate with like-minded people or if the entire country feels this way, but I also hear about the growing concern via newsradio and newspapers). I wonder all the time what the general sentiment in the US is- when I left in August 2006 the idea of climate change still faced a large multitude of skeptics.