All the years I lived in various places on the Atlantic seaboard got me into the habit of watching weather reports very closely during the Atlantic hurricane season. Though located in the desert now, I find myself unable to stop watching every Tropical Update on the Weather Channel, and checking in with Weather Underground every time I turn on the computer. I was a little disappointed with the Moyers Journal Mike Tidwell segment - it was way too short, and showed far too little of Tidwell's work and thought. Check my post for links to other sites and to his books, to learn more about and from Tidwell. What I did appreciate hearing was his optimism on the possibility - with enough will and effort - of a turn around on global climate change before it is ultimately too late.

As Hurricane Dean intensifies into a scary Cat 5 storm, the guy to be hanging with right now, however, is Chris Mooney, tracking it on The Daily Green, and in his own blog The Intersection. Chris grew up in New Orleans, and witnessed the devastation of his own family property there in Katrina. He, like Tidwell, has a new book, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics and The Battle Over Global Warming. I haven't even seen this book yet, but need to put it on my library list. I'd like to know if Chris has any of Mike Tidwell's optimism. His current piece at The Daily Green: "Category 5? Hurricane Dean And Gilbert Of 1988," really gives me the heebie-jeebies with its talk of a continental US landfall possibility. No matter how much Dubya thinks he's preparing his "home state" for a direct hit from Dean, there is really no way to be ready for a storm like this.