Jason F.C. Clarke

On the environment

This editorial perfectly articulates my position on man-made climate change.

An Inconvenient Question

The write creates an analogy between smoking and man-made climate change. The tobacco industry successfully suppressed or cast doubt on evidence that smoking caused cancer for years. If you’d read a report of such evidence in the 1960s, would you have kept smoking–a luxury habit–at the risk of dying of lung cancer later?

Of course, the answer is very often yes, for reasons related to the nature of the human brain. The question is whether humanity has enough imagination and willpower to overcome these inherent mental and emotional obstacles.

On the same topic, here’s a great guide to the candidates’ positions and records on environmental issues.

—01/11/08

A New–and Big–Year

First off, apologies for the long lack of posting. Between the holidays and my birthday, things were pretty busy in December.

The holidays went well. My fiancee, DG, and I remained here in Massachusetts and spent it with my family. We made an effort to mix our family traditions–we all exchanged pajamas on Christmas Eve, as her family does, and then we watched a Christmas movie, one of my own family’s traditions (this year it was the critically acclaimed classic Ernest Saves Christmas–which, I have to say, doesn’t have nearly as much Ernest in it as you would expect. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I leave up to you).

Of course, the real reason I’ve neglected this blog is because of the new kid in town. I posted daily–sometimes more than daily–over there all last month. I’m really enjoying it–as I told my Web designer, it’s my favorite new toy.

But it does leave me wondering what to do with Biggerboat. I always had trouble trying to decide what to post here–I didn’t really want it to be a purely personal blog, but on the other hand, my plans for it to be the home page of “speculative science fiction author Jason F.C. Clarke” hasn’t really panned out either.

I suppose it will end up morphing into a mainly personal blog, a way for my friends and family to keep up on what I’m doing–not unlike my cousin’s site. After all, I will occasionally want to post something not toy-related.

Speaking of which, 2008 is going to be a banner year for me. DG will get her Ph.D; the two of us will tie the knot in August; and I will turn the ripe old age of 30 before year’s end. How crazy will I be driven? Wait and see!

—01/05/08