Connecticut Green Living

As I write, I'm in a cool room in Windsor Locks, Connecticut , enjoying the way my skin feels after walking to the hotel from the restaurant next door. Just a few minutes in this weather made me dizzy, and tomorrow and Wednesday will be worse. For those of us who take public transportation, extreme heat and humidity is dangerous. I spoke to Dr. Kenneth Gillingham , Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Yale School of the Environment, about why this "heat spell" is threatening. We also spoke last April about our state's "green" rating (#9). "My primary concern about the heat is for low-income people who don't have access to adequate cooling. This will be exacerbated in the upcoming years," he wrote in an e-mail. I had asked him if our current presidential administration is having an adverse bearing on climate change. He said, "A presidential administration can affect your carbon footprint by influencing the carbon intensity of ele...

I'm a stickler for details. "Why is everyone doing their year roundups several weeks before the end of the year?" I asked my friend Len. "Well, because it's the way they do it, you know, the year's almost over." I can't remember exactly what he said. "But something incredible - good or bad - could still happen in these, let's see, 12 days." "Then write your roundup and add something in if that happens." So here we are. This was a difficult year, though not without its share of excitement and joy. The principal excitement came when I bussed off to D.C. as I have been wanting to do for a couple years, and attended the National Press Club Career Day . We got free profile pictures courtesy of a wonderful photographer by the name of Melissa Lyttle and I met with representatives of the AP, Washington Post and regional publications around the country. My favorite part of the day was probably "Nail the interview: Advice for succ...

This year sucked. The only redeeming portion of 2023 was the chunk dedicated to helping New Haven schoolchildren and teens turn on their Chromebooks and access the lessons their real teachers had provided them. I also lost 10 pounds. And in February I was offered an environmental reporting job in North Dakota that I, temporarily insane, passed up. Other than that, I did not find a permanent job, boyfriend or cat, nor undiscovered millions. Oh yes, I did fall in love with someone ELSE's cat, Laird, a sturdy white dazzler at a Hamden Airbnb. I also joined the club and caught C , after a mask was brought to a kid in class and an aide pushed her name and number my way. Paxlovid was gross, but it worked. I have spent the 10 months since carefully avoiding sniffling vectors unless you count yesterday when Amtrak diverted us to a bus and the guy behind me coughed his way from New Haven to Hartford . I spent a lot of time alone this year, at McDonald's in West Haven or Branford. Sp...

The following article was published on Examiner.com May 9, 2013. It has been lightly edited. The pummeling Long Island Sound suffered from Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy showed us here in Connecticut that climate change is not some far-off intangible. And more recently, the flip from 60 degree day in New York to a biting snowstorm the next just last week should be a climate denier's wakeup call. Of course, not everyone has rallied around the climate change camp (Fox News). Yale Climate Project released in 2013 an extensive study in accessible PDF form that shows how climate change advocates are far more firmly entrenched in their beliefs than are doubters. The study,  "Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans' Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in April 2013"  is a good read for anyone who doubts the science (or anyone who doesn't). Yale scientists and students have nicely illustrated their points, which include: • A majority of Americans ...