Today I’m at the library, one of the few buildings open on campus. It looks like the Central Line of the London Underground during the Blitz, with laptops.

(I will put blame where blame is due, though–Nancy Pelosi delivered the Cap and Trade Bill that Obama wanted in 2010, but it got held up in that model anti-democracy, the U.S. Senate. While under Dem control! So I still blame the Dems, but I don’t blame Obama exclusively. There’s plenty to go around.)

I think, Historiann, that it is relatively easy to do nothing about global warming and other sustainability/resilience challenges. Addressing global environmental challenges requires changes that comfortable U.S. people tend not to want to make, from single individuals on up to national government and multinational corporations. Politicians and others with a mind to do so take advantage of that. When it comes to climate, the U.S. is a singular menace both for what we do and what we don’t do. That said, I see a lot going on at the local and regional agency level to at least prepare for the effects of global warming. Farmers of course pay attention to changing climate.

I do some public speaking about climate, both as it connects with my research and more broadly. The audiences who are the most engaged, informed, making changes in their lives, and advocating in the policy realm are communities of faith. At my public university, students care a lot too but they are so far down the economic ladder that climate, environment, and social justice sometimes seem like luxury concerns. Nevertheless, they strive to make the best choices they can and see the connections between climate change and social justice. There are notable exceptions but my experience in the natural sciences has been that the higher up the academic prestige ladder you go, the more disconnect there is between personal behavior and global challenges, particularly among the faculty. (Relative) wealth and sense of personal economic security may be at work here, even among faculty who see global warming as a problem. It is pretty easy to say “my individual lifestyle is irrelevant compared to the power of government to effect change” and then continue driving alone to work every day while complaining about politicians. (As always, the plural of anecdote is not data.)

The story I tell is based on a drought-ravaged land and an economically devastated time. But both the drought and the post-hurricane mess require, I think, the same grim determination.

Lower Manhattan is a disaster, and I suspect Comrade Physioproffe’s neighborhood is either underwater or suffering the catastrophic effects thereof. Subways down until god knows when: tunnels are filled with sea water. 14th street sub station blew up with 19 workers trapped inside (we saw the flash from here: it was huge), and NYU hospital went down, with its backup generator. When I kickd it in last night, nurses were bagging Peds ICU babies and walking them out into the storm.

DUMBO completely underwater last night (someone reported on Twitter that the lights were still glowing even though it was submerged) and cars floating on Wall Street, 14th Street, West Street, and Second avenue up by 92nd street.

More later on Tenured Radical.

School is closed, but students’ emails are dry (not cut though). One student even suggested to work on information for mental patients. Have I lost it?