The unusual westward swerve of Hurricane Sandy was so large as to take the worst weather away to our west, and away from the coast the storm surge was of course not an issue. The weekend was an extraordinary time, with the possibility of calamity even squeezing the elections out of the conversations...
I've been following with great interest the ash dieback developments in the UK, culminating in a COBRA meeting today in some bunker under Whitehall (add your own sentence here including the words horse, stable, bolted and door). It's fascinating to see both press and website comments eager to embrace a positive note - maybe it won't be as bad as Dutch elm disease, maybe ash will recover, or my personal favourite - 'Ecologists know that Nature is resilient'. I'm all for happy endings to stories of mild peril and rescue, but if there's one thing ecology can tell us, it's that in the face of human influences Nature isn't proving very resilient at all.
We had a lunchtime discussion this week with staff from a private college in Connecticut who have just built a no-expenses-spared environmental research institute, and were looking for ideas for what research they should consider doing. I guess when a major donor offers you a large chunk of cash you say yes quickly, and some of the details get left until later. We had an entertaining debate over the inspirational qualities of 'wacky' research -with the Harvard Forest simulated hurricane being a good example, but numerous other examples - reintroducing species, mouse-proof fencing, blowing up trees to create deadwood and so on.
Next week - our first snow of the winter, an all-night election nail-biter, and a trip into Boston...
Election quote of the week: "It's time for the Governor to slalom down from Bullshit Mountain"
Most heard local radio song: 'Tequila makes her clothes fall off'
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