As I said last year, the biggest problem in the world is still nuclear weapons.  Obama gets it, and the New START Treaty is a step on the road to nuclear disarmament.  Still, as Brian Toon and I have shown, the nuclear weapons that will remain in the American and Russian arsenals will still be enough to produce nuclear winter.  We will convene a session at the AAAS Annual Meeting in February, 2011, on this subject, and hope more people will take notice.  I am still shocked that Fidel Castro did.  That led to an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 5, 2010, but the only ones who seem to have noticed that so far are the FBI, who paid me a visit last week to dicuss my Cuban contacts.

   Things continue to go well at Rutgers.   Ben Kravitz continues to work with me on my geoengineering project funded by NSF, and will graduate in May, 2011.  I have three other graduate students, all doing well.  Lili Xia is also working on the geoengineering grant.  Mira Losic is working with me on an NSF grant to study volcanic eruptions and the Arctic.  Tom Collow is working on a NASA grant to study remote sensing of soil moisture.  I published seven refereed journal articles this year, and have three more in press.  If you are interested in more information or want to read them, visit my home page and click on Publications.

    Geoengineering continues to be a hot topic.  I gave invited talks about it this year at the Environmental Defense Fund Science Day (Sausalito, California), United Nations Headquarters, Oregon State University, the AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy (Washington, DC), the University of Reading, the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Montana, and Peking University, as well as conference talks on the subject at the Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies, the European Geosciences Union General Assembly, a Transdisciplinary Summer School, Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany), the American Association for Aerosol Research, the Beijing Forum, and the American Geophysical Union.  Although a national research program on the subject has yet to develop, I will write a proposal this year to continue my work, and am already scheduled to convene a workshop at Rutgers and a conference session at IUGG on the subject next year.

    I've been lucky enough to have been on TV and radio again several times this year.  I was on “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” for one hour discussing geoengineering on TV Ontario, Canada in March (live from a studio near the Arc de Triomphe a couple hours after we landed in Paris for spring break), on the Weather Channel discussing the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in April, on CBS News also discussing the eruption in April, on Cuban national TV in September (which broadcast my entire lecture for Fidel), on a show on the Canadian Broadcasting Company about geoengineering in November, on NJN News in December reporting on my trip to Trenton about global warming, and on Nippon TV news about geoengineering in December (click on picture of people at a long table in upper left and see it after the advertisement). 

    I just finished teaching four classes this Fall, but will not have to teach in the Spring.  Next academic year I am planning to take a sabbatical, so that was my last teaching (and grading) for 20 months!  On the sabbatical I hope to spend some time in Boulder and Beijing, with a number of other trips included.

    Our solar panels (photovoltaic) continue to work well.  Here is an updated graph of our electric bill for the past few years.  It is easy to see when we turned it on.

    I continued to have many travel opportunities this year, again going over 100,000 miles on Continental.  I told you about our trip to India last year, and am planning a trip to Pune in February next year.  We also plan to visit Gera and Tanya in Saudi Arabia in March, and will report on that trip next year.  It required us to get new passports, as the old ones had Israeli stamps in then.

    In January I attended the American Meteorological Society meeting in Atlanta, and went to a geoengineering meeting organized by the Environmental Defense Fund at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito.  Here's the view from in front of the hotel.  I also, with Bob Bornstein, discovered the old car collection of the owner of Brian's Masters school, the Academy of Arts University.  In March I flew to the University of Ottawa for a day to give a lecture and later spent a week at the Asilomar conference center in Pacific Grove, California, at a geoengineering conference.  It was beautiful there (click here, here, here, and here), but the goal of the conference, to establish ethical guidelines for geoengineering research and potential future implementation, came nowhere close to being achieved.

    In April, I gave a talk at the United Nations on geoengineering, and then went to a meeting of the UCAR President's Advisory Committee at Oregon State.  On the way to Corvalis, I stopped in Salem, Oregon, to see Sherri Rieger, with whom I had gone to high school in Bloomington, Indiana, and give a talk on global warming at the high school where she is a counselor.  Here we are in our high school year book in 1966, at our 10th reunion, and this year.  It was great to see her again, and I look forward to seeing her again next year at our 45th reunion.

    In May, I went to the EGU meeting in Vienna, where I was able to spend some time with my friend Ulli Pechinger.  On the day I arrived we went for a hike in the hills where they grow wine, and on other days went to a jazz club and dined on white asparagus.  On another night I had dinner and beer with Gera, Tanya, and Thor.  I came home a day early, worried that the Iceland volcano would delay my return, so that I could be sure to make the flight to Hawaii with Sherri for our 20th wedding anniversary.  Here we are at Kona Village after arriving, on a cataraman trip back to Maui from Lanai, and at Haleakala Crater at the top of Maui.

    In June, Sherri and I visited England.  I spent several days at the University of Reading arranging for a Junior Year Abroad programs for Rutgers Meteorology students, and then we went to Bath where we saw the old bridge.  Next we went to Penzance where we saw a play on a cliff side, the end of England in Cornwall, and met some friends in the pub watching the World Cup.  We also saw some boats in St. Ives and stopped in Dartmoor on the way back, with interesting rocks at the top.  We also visited Cheddar Gorge, near Bristol where we took a flight home.  The cheddar cheese we bought there was the best I have ever had.

    In July I taught at a summer school on geoengineering in Heidelberg, Germany, famous for its old castle.  Here are the speakers, at lunch.  Paul Crutzen is sitting next to me.  I tried the food and went to a wine tasting.  They have a very sophisticated parking lot at the train station.  There was a nice sunset after the conference dinner.  They had an old car rally, with a classic American car with a McCarthy sticker.  At the Frankfurt airport on the way home, I saw my first Airbus 380.  In August, I went to an IPCC soping meeting in Liege, Belgium.  I tried tradional food and dessert.  Liege has a spectacular train station, with other views here and here, that will be connected to the Chunnel at some point.  I met the IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, there.  In Brussels before I came home, I visited the Atomium, with a cool elevator and escalator.

    In October I went to the UCAR meetings in Boulder as usual, and in November went to Beijing for the Beijing Forum, a gathering of some 300 people from around the world.  Here is the room where I gave my talk.  The traffic was terrible, but the lake at Peking University was pretty.  On the first day, my friend Suxia took me to the Bird's Nest.  I then went to Kunming for a meeting of authors of the Working Group I report of the upcoming Fifth Assessment of the IPCC.  Here are more of my co-authors.  And here are the rest.  It might look nice, but the hotel where we stayed was pretty crumby, with no hot water one day.  I had expected a small mountain town the people went to as a spa, but it was a big polluted city of 7 million people, all of whom wanted cars.  We drove by the Porsche dealer on the way in from the airport.  I walked to a lake nearby, where tourists, some quite well dressed, were trying to enjoy the promenade.  But take a close look at the sky - it was terribly polluted the whole time I was there.  There was a nicely landscaped shoreline, near where the rich people have condos they use on weekends.  One night my fellow chapter authors and I went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  Here is the traffic on the way to our banquet.  You can barely make out a couple bicycles, quite a change from my first trip to China in 1984.  And here is the breakfast I had at the Kunming airport.  Landing in Beijing on the way home the air was even dirtier.  If you look very closely, you can make out windmills on the ground and a large ying-yang sign.

    In December, I attended the Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco.  I was busy with giving talks and chairing sessions, but am not on the Council any more, so it was a bit more relaxing.  I also got to spend time with Brian, Ginger, Dan, and Little Dan, but had to go home a couple days after the meeting to complete my grading.  Sherri stayed longer, and tells all about her visit below. 

    I saw Bob Dylan for the 43rd time in November at Monmouth University, with Sherri and six friends who had never seen Dylan before.  Four of them really enjoyed it, as did I.  It was better than the last few times I had seen him both in the selection of songs and in the performance.  Next time it is so convenient, I think I'll do it again.  We also saw Jackson Browne there in September, the first time we had seen him, and it way very good, but he did not sing the song that I went there to hear, Goin' Down to Cuba.  We really enjoyed seeing Joan Baez in July in Red Bank.

    Wisconsin IS going to the Rose Bowl this year!  They won all but one game, including defeating Ohio State, Michigan, and Iowa.  Unfortunately, we did not plan for it and will be in Paris on January 1, so we'll watch it at The Grand Canadian, a sports bar along the Seine, with other members of thee Wisconsin Alumni Association - France.  Allez, Bucky!!

Sherri:  I left my heart in San Francisco this year—writing this while flying home on Christmas day after meeting my adorable, precious, spectacular, brilliant, energetic, pooptastic (literally, I have the pics for proof!) first grandson, Daniel Gregory, born on Nov. 27th, weighing in at 7lbs. 3oz., 20” of beautiful babyhood. Oh yes, my boys, Ginger and her mother, Kit, were also there, and it was great to see them for a longer time than usual—since Ginger delivered about two weeks early, and thanks to my colleagues at Brookdale, and online submissions of exams (all but a few now graded, thankfully), I was able to visit them earlier, so have spent just about 2 weeks there, and it’s been glorious. Actually, the weather was not so great, but when you’re holding an adorable, alert baby (aka, Gunnar, or “Gunsy,”—Brian’s attempt at humor, along with his claim that his boy will skip college to drive NASCAR) every day is a sunny day-and we had a few of those too. For the most part I stayed with the kids in San Rafael, so was able to see the improvements to their house as well as scope out the area—which I like very much. Wonderful shopping in Marin County, and, now, with one more to buy for, what fun!!!!!

    To update you on the boys, Brian, now 34 and the proud, if tired father of Lil D, another of what I imagine will be his many nicknames, is now working at Activision, and, though he has a long commute along with long hours, enjoys the work that he’s doing. He still surfs, is working on his Serena Black Mystery novels, complains a bit too much, but is otherwise doing very well as he copes with the demands of fatherhood. Ginger, who is a nurse at the VA Hospital in San Francisco, is now on maternity leave, but will return at the end of January, so another challenge awaits them. She’s doing very well with the baby and, as today is his one month birthday, is already lamenting his getting “older.” But, as we know, older is usually better (if you can avoid the teen years!). Brian has also become something of a house fixer-upper in order to save money, having redone his kitchen with new cabinets, counter, appliances, as well as working on his yard and putting in a French drain (with another one on the way). In this he has been aided by friends and his younger brother, Dan, who has been living with Brian and Ginger since last March. One year ago Dan celebrated his 30th birthday and decided to move to California. Brian flew home, stayed a day, then drove back with Dan and his possessions. Since then, Dan has found full-time employment at a Safeway Grocery store in Terra Linda in their Deli department, and it’s a union job, so, while the pay isn’t great, the benefits are good. Dan reports that he likes the climate and loves Brian and Ginger’s dogs, Murphy and Molly. So far, things have been working out, though one day Dan hopes to move to a place of his own. Both remain healthy and for that we are all grateful.

    This is my 38th year at Brookdale, my 36th of teaching, and what will likely be my last. I’ve applied for a transitional sabbatical, and, if it is awarded, would work on a project for the college next year for half of my pay, then be officially retired. So, the Spring 2011 semester may well be my last. I still enjoy teaching, but am weary of the number of students and papers and requisite skills (or lack thereof, in some remarkable cases—“comma causes” for “kami kazes”—come on, and with the advantage of spellchecker!), and would like to be able to travel more to, you guessed it, San Francisco, as well as with Alan. As you’ve already read, he’s getting to go to some pretty snazzy places—so we’ll see. In the meantime, next semester has me teaching the survey courses in World Civilizations (one online), and the Contemporary World History course (aka “doom and gloom”) which I dearly love to teach. Even though the world continues to be pretty chaotic, I love helping students to better understand it and/or to be aware of a world beyond their own little one. So, even when retired, I’m sure I’ll keep my hand in the education game, most likely working on online course development and trying to find more study abroad opportunities for community college students. Last year I was awarded a college honor, the Barringer Award, which made me proud, and reminded me of how lucky I was to find Brookdale as a potential student, and to have had the opportunity to get paid for talking politics and history. During this year I’ve also had the good fortune to reconnect with former students—Jennifer Smith, now living in England; Varsha, who visited my colleague Tony and me at Thanksgiving with her husband, Raj; and Christina Connor, librarian at Ramapo College via Facebook, as with Jennifer. And a long-ago former high-school student, George Chauncey, just published an op-ed in The New York Times on the repeal of DADT. Though education has been a whipping boy for a lot of failed policies (and teachers easy to pick on, just listen to our esteemed Governor Christie) I have had a good life because of my work, my colleagues, and some memorable students, yet I am ready to look for other horizons.

    Speaking of horizons, the sky contains beautiful shades of pink and purple as the sun sets as I am heading east, and reminds me of the many trips I’ve taken this year, but, even more so, of the many friends I’ve had the chance to see in 2010. Just a few days ago, I had a great Thai lunch with Marilyn Clancy, a friend from Hampton High School, who lives near where Brian works. We’ve managed to keep in touch all these years, thanks to email, and it was great to catch up on her travels—we were “dropping travel destinations” as we tried to outdo each other—never been to Tibet? Shame on you! Speaking of travel, Alan and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Hawaii, again at our honeymoon destination, Kona Village, then to Maui. Shortly thereafter we went to England and to Cornwall in the very southwest portion, and had beautiful weather there, too. Along the way, I’ve also had a chance to reconnect with Pi Phi Sorority sisters from 1967 at a reunion weekend in Richmond, VA, courtesy of Mary Anne Hocutt’s daughter. Nine of us had a wonderful time seeing each other, in some cases, for the first time in 43 years, marveling in the changes for women that have taken place since our time at W&M, and, of course, talking grandkids—now I have a lot to contribute, for sure! In November, Mary Anne Hocutt’s son, Scott Beale, the creator of Atlas Corps, gave a brilliant talk at Brookdale on the value of citizen-service, which Mary Anne was able to attend for a too-quick visit. In August we visited the kids in California, courtesy of an invitation from Kit, Ginger’s mother, to spend a week helping her to house-sit in the city. While we spent a bit of time with the kids, we also had a chance to get to know each other and to see our good friends, Bob and Sureyya Bornstein.

    As for my family, we were able to visit for a short while in August, and we saw my sisters Gina and Jeffy, still teaching though longing for retirement within the next few years, Rachel, a student at Thomas Nelson Community College and Gina’s daughter, and my brother Tom and Janice, his wife, and her son Derek, his girlfriend, Katy, and their adorable baby, Jackson. We also flew to Cleveland in July for the wedding of my former sister-in-law, Cheryl’s youngest son, TJ, to Lauren. The boys flew out for the weekend, so we had a mini-reunion with them as well as good friends, Anne and Steve Prudente, who have moved to another house in Freehold, where we now meet occasionally and play Rummikub. Here are Cheryl and the bride, Dan, Brian and their cousins, and me dancing with Brian.  Anne, Cheryl, and I are planning a party weekend sometime in February in Florida—so watch out spring breakers! Tom and Janice still live near St. Louis, where their youngest, Tommy, has graduated a fire training course and will continue on at a nearby community college. Christine has her own condo, will start training to be a nurse, and continues to work with special children. Heather and Bobby, Tom’s daughter and prospective son-in-law, live near Tampa where Bobby is in a culinary program and Heather continues to do animation.

    I gave my long-time colleague, Tony Snyder, a 70th birthday party at the house in August, and we continue to be grateful for good and close friends, Ron and Cyndi Sopenoff, Joan Rykiel and George Brinton, Kathy Hjelle and Tim Zebo, with whom we’ve watched the World Cup (along with a vuvuzela supplied by our friend Sheryl Geisler who traveled to South Africa) and celebrated many other occasions, big and small. Thanks for them all for their friendship and the wonderful food they bring to parties.

    As for politics, I didn’t do a lot this past year except donate money to various liberal causes and attend the Rally for Sanity. I remain confident that Obama will steer our country in the right direction in terms of foreign policy and I love his domestic programs so far. I am not among those liberals that am disappointed at what he’s accomplished, and I fully expect him to be re-elected in 2012 and will work hard for that to happen. I still exercise, including yoga and pilates, which have helped me overcome broken kneecap and ankle injuries, so remain fairly mobile. As for the mobile world, I do own an iPhone, a Kindle (good for long trips), am on Facebook (friend me under "Sherri West"), even signed up for Twitter to follow the Iranian elections in 2009 but never kept up with that, but am still old-school enough to want to hunker down with a good book, which I’m about to do now. One I read recently and would recommend to all is Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart, hysterically funny in parts, but all too prescient about the near-future of the U.S. If anyone has any good books to recommend, starting in May I hope to have a lot more time to read them, so send suggestions along.

    I guess due to the length of the flight (5 hrs+) I’ve gone on and on, rivaling Al in terms of length if not in breadth, but our travels shortly to Paris, then in March to Saudi Arabia, and beyond, are a dream come true for me.

    But nothing is as sweet as holding my dear Little Dan—I long to return to San Fran. Here’s to a peaceful, healthful, happyful 2011 (and one where Fox News is hacked big time!).  And forgive my not sending cards this year—I took some to California with me, thinking I’d have the time, but my grandson (and shopping) got in the way—this letter will have to suffice.  

May your 2011 be a healthy and fulfilling one.  Happy New Year!