Everything is on fire and no one cares

[JDPriestly]

72. I understand it has been terrible in Portland, Oregon.

We need a moratorium on the use of fossil fuels in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas just to start. Maybe Nevada and parts of Utah should be included.

We could phase in this total moratorium over a period of 15 years. That's about the life of many cars (although ours are older; we use them relatively little).

We need to invest in solar panels in the Southwest and in rail. I'm seeing more and more electric cars. That's a good sign.

Bicycles are great, but you have to get cars off the roads first (or at least many of the cars). That's how bicycles can become safe and popular.

If you have bicycles and cars sharing roads, the bicycle riders will inevitably get the bad end of the deal. Not only are they small and hard to see if they ride up next to a truck or parked car or at night (especially if the riders wear dark clothing and have no reflectors), but they are easily knocked over, hard to stop and start (which causes bike riders to ignore traffic stops and signals), have no rear view mirrors and cause a lot of other safety problems on the streets of a big city like Los Angeles that has heavy traffic.

But if we had really good public transportation, subsidized so it is nearly free, then people would get out of their cars.

We have to do these things to save our environment.

It is already too hot.

In Southern California, the drought may not be totally due to climate change, but I have to report that, judging from the number of avocados on our trees, the drought has decimated our squirrel population. We still have skunks and raccoons (in the middle of the city), but I'm not seeing squirrels, and they are leaving our avocados alone.

We need stronger action on climate change. There is no denying it is here. I'm hoping that Alaskans will wake up and lead the call. They are feeling it the most right now.