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Small town life

Questions about roundabout

Walk into Healdsburg Elementary School these days and you’ll be greeted by a mural that is sure to make you smile.

Last time out I composed a rather open-minded and open-hearted look at the man in the White House. It was written as an attempt to reveal a silver lining in his behavior, offering possible reasons why he sees fit to relish in spewing venom. In short, I was trying to find the human in the human being.

It goes without saying that plants are some of the most beautiful and important organisms we have on our planet. As a child I was always interested in the world of plants. A world seemingly so familiar yet so estranged from common understanding. As kids we run barefoot and play on the soft grass, take refuge under the shade a tree provides amidst a hot California day, and take a deep breath of the fresh air the leaves so selflessly gift to us. All while the plants remain sessile, unassuming and ask nothing of us. 

In welcoming the New Year, the most important story of our time continues to be climate change. A Special Report released in October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that basically everything the world agreed upon in the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 to curb global warming is not enough. The Trump administration concurred with the scientific evidence of this study, and with commitments necessary to mitigate global warming. Thus, the question of whether climate change is being caused by human activity is no longer a political issue, it’s scientific fact.