Slipstream

In 2010, greenhouse gas emissions around the world rose by a record 5.9%. If these rates continue, we have a 50/50 chance that by the year 2100 the global average temperature will have increased by more than 4 degrees Celsius, a rise that could lead to loss of land, mass migrations, and bloody conflicts in affected countries.

About three-quarters of that increase comes from developing countries anxious to catch up with their wealthy cousins in the West, suggesting that those of us sucking up most of the resources are starting to get a handle on our myopic habits, despite the zealot naysayers who argue that greenhouse gases and rising temperatures are the stuff of science fiction and of little consequence to our everyday lives.

Calving glacier in Glacier Bay, Alaska

But closer examination suggests that all we’ve really done is export our problems to those developing countries that have taken on much of the energy-intensive manufacturing we used to do, while we continue to consume and waste and beg for more. And more is what we’re getting, especially when it comes to greenhouse gases. (more…)

I’ve been working on a new guide for my 5-Spot ebook travel series, this one about Portland. The book describes places such as Forest Park, Powell’s City of Books, and The Grotto, a Catholic shrine with a stone altar and a full-size replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà and enough candles to light the Vatican.

When I first visited The Grotto, it reminded me of the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette, which chronicles the visionary adventures of Bernadette Soubirous and her numerous visits to a Lourdes cave in 1858. The cave, as it turns out, also doubled as the town dump, which was one of several reasons why many at the time questioned the authenticity of Bernadette’s visions. They also thought the girl might be a bit touched and should be taken away to an asylum. Despite these naysayers, Bernadette insisted that she had had numerous conversations with a woman who wore a blue girdle, a while veil, and a yellow rose on each foot, a woman who eventually identified herself as the Immaculate Conception—the Holy Blessed Virgin Mary, for those out of the Catholic loop.

The Grotto in Portland, Oregon

Having been reminded of the film about Bernadette, I updated my Netflix queue to include the movie, which friends and I watched over the Thanksgiving weekend. It turned out we had all been raised Catholic, some of us much more loosely than others, and had watched the movie regularly on our black-and-white TV sets when growing up. The film provided us with a nostalgic glimpse into our pasts, a time, from our adult perspectives, that seemed far simpler and easier to negotiate, if for no other reason than as kids we knew no better.

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