Nuclear
winter continues to be the most important thing I
work on, but there has not been much progress in the past
year. There have been some UN resolutions on banning nuclear
weapons, and the agreement with Iran to prevent
them from getting nuclear weapons is certainly a great victory. But
President Obama, who has pledged to work toward a world free of nuclear
weapons, has shown no signs of further reducing our arsenal or even taking
our missiles of hair-trigger alert. Now that he has an additional
victory in Paris on global warming, in his final year, it is time for his
to cement his legacy on this vital issue.
My TEDx talk on
nuclear winter now has over 8000 views so far, I have more than
800 followers on Twitter, and now have 9 Huffington
Post blogs. Let's see if social media can really change the
world.
Our good friend Madoka Sato visited us in August, and
although he was not fat before, he had lost 30 pounds since we had seen him
last. He did it on purpose, and the usual way. He stopped eating
rice and exercised more. I had long ago resigned myself to gaining a
pound a year and told myself that it was my body type and could do nothing
about it. But Madoka's example inspired me to lose weight, and I have
lost 20 pounds since then and continue to go down. I have found it is
really quite simple. First, I stopped eating bread, rice, potatoes,
dessert, beer, and candy. Here are some pictures from Paris of what I
am not eating any more: here, and
here. I fill up on vegetables and salad. But more importantly, I learned to not be afraid
to feel hungry sometimes. Before, I was sure to eat extra so I never
felt hungry. But now I wait for the next meal. And when eating,
I stop as soon as I feel full and do not cram in the rest that is on my
plate. I have maintained a moderate exercise schedule, but did not do
anything special in that regard. Probably, my new toy, an Apple
Watch, helps, as it keeps track of my activity and reminds me each day to
stand up once an hour. But it is the change in my diet that has done
the trick. I am not religious about it, and enjoy sushi when I can and
occasional treats. But since I never threw out old pants that had
gotten too small, I now have a lot more clothes to wear. Even if I
don't lose any more, it is great, but my plan is to keep it up for a while.
I actually travelled less this year
than in previous years. Sherri and I started the year in San Francisco
and flew to Arizona for a short vacation before the AMS meeting. We
stayed at a great old railroad hotel in Winslow,
where Sher could not resist standing on the corner, and enjoyed
Meteor Crater, and the
Petrified Forest in the Painted Desert, although it was partly painted white by recent
snowfall. At the AMS ceremony, a lot of friends
joined us at the table. A large crew of Rutgers
students attended the meeting, and we took them
out to dinner. As we were leaving we saw
Air Force One leave after a visit by President
Obama to Phoenix, and then them loading his limousine
onto a plane to go back to DC.
In February I attended my last UCAR board meeting in
Boulder, and then went to the AAAS meeting in San Jose, California. I
was on a panel that presented the new National Academy of Sciences report on
geoengineering. At the press conference I told the story of how four
years earlier the CIA had called me up to ask whether we would know if
another country was trying to control our climate. I also thought they
were interested in whether they could control another country's climate
without them knowing. I said, "no." This got a lot of media
attention, including radio and TV interviews, and an invitation to write
an
article in The Guardian telling the story.
In March we took our family to
Maui, and stayed at a nice resort. We dined,
swam, had coffee (Brian, Ginger, Danny) and
(Sherri and Alan), saw
rainbows, and ran on the grass.
Danny and Vivi spent a lot of time
in the pool, and helped
feed the goldfish. Ginger did not think
much of my oyster shooter. Nice
picture, but they got the rainbow colors wrong. We enjoyed
visiting the Royal Kamehameha Golf Club, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright,
which were having a pirate-themed party. The trip ended
with sunsets for the family and
for us.
We took a great trip to Switzerland and Paris in
April. I gave a talk in Bern, and then we spent a long weekend in
Mürren in the Alps. The trip involved two trains,
a gondola, and then
a small train along the valley rim. We took a funicular railroad to
the top of a ski area, and had coffee. It snowed for one day but cleared up enough the
next day for a nice walk down the Lauterbrunnen Valley. We took
the gondola to Piz Gloria on the Schilthorn,
where skiiers zoomed around us. It is
famous for being the site of the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret
Service. James Bond theme music played in the gondola, and
the 007
logo decorated the dishes. Both Sherri and
I tried to stop the violence. The town even had a
James Bond-themed Easter dinner with a chocolate gun! What a
great view of the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau!
Afterwards we enjoyed fondue in our luxurious Hotel
Eiger.
We returned to Bern for a great conference on the 200th
anniversary of the Tambora volcanic eruption in Indonesia, which resulted in
the 1816 "Year Without a Summer." All the
volcano and climate experts
in the world attended the fascinating meeting, and it felt great to have my
pioneering work in this area mentioned as the basis of the new work by so
many speakers. I enjoyed talking with
old friends. We visited Einstein's House,
in hopes that some of the genius would rub off.
We then took a train to Paris, where I spend two weeks
working with Myriam Khodri at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace.
Sherri and I stayed in a great apartment in the 5th. The
view from the Institut de Monde Arabe is
always great. A highlight was a
visit to the Foundation Louis Vuitton,
a spectacular new museum designed by
Frank Gehry, which you can climb around with views of Paris, and with
an
interesting waterfall and grotto on the bottom. It has a collection of
modern art, and even had a small show of world masterpieces, including
Munch's Scream, my favorite painting of all time. (I gave a
5-minute talk on the art of volcanic sunsets at NCAR in the Fall, focusing
on Munch, and you can see it
here.) We also visited the
Pierre and Marie Curie Museum. I worked with Myriam's group on
volcanic eruptions and climate, and it was very fruitful. I attended a
Wisconsin Alumni Club meeting, where we planned a picnic for the Fourth of
July and met Constance, whose cousin is married
to a colleague of mine.
In May we enjoyed the wedding of my nephew Zach Robock to Jen Ehrhart at
her family's resort in the Poconos. It was fun to be with most of my
family is a beautiful location, including
Jerry and Stephie, Bill and
Laura, Dan, and Lisa's
family. Here are Dan and us, and
Jerry, Lisa, and me,
In May, we also celebrated our 25th wedding
anniversary.
Thanks to a
meeting I found out about in Paris, I was invited to Aspen
in June. I had only been there once before driving through. As I
flew there, I could still see snow in the mountains. The word of
Christine Lavin's song, "Nobody's Fat in Aspen," kept going through my mind
there, "Nobody's fat in Aspen, everybody eats brie cheese ...."
It
really is beautiful, and we were able to take an afternoon to
drive up to Maroon Bells, which is
just
spectacular.
Next I flew to Palm Springs, a place
I had never been to before, to film a show for the History Channel on the
end of the world (my specialty). It was over 100°F (~40°C)
there, so I took the aerial tramway to the
top of Mt.San Jancinto for cooler weather, a view
and dinner. The next day we drove to the Salton Sea to
film next to
buildings from an abandoned resort using a drone, as the lake has begun to putrify.
It was created after an irrigation canal breached and was not fixed for more
than a year. As it is below sea level, there are no outlets and it has
gotten saltier and more polluted (with agricultural runoff) over time.
What a mess! If they let it dry up, it will become a source for
windblown pollution. If they keep filling it, the demand for the rest
of the Colorado River water will be even harder to satisfy.
Unfortunately, I just found out that the show will not be aired. But I
got a trip to a fascinating place.
Later in June
we flew to Prague for the IUGG meeting, with my postdoc Lili Xia, where
we visited an art museum. Of course,
we walked across the Charles Bridge. Our
friend, Ulli Pechinger, took the train from Vienna and joined us for a few
days. Anja Schmidt received the George Walker Award, for which I
nominated her, seen here with a supporter
and friend, Steve Self. Later at dinner to celebrate,
I had pork knuckle.
We visited Kafka's house and the John Lennon Wall. Then we flew to Paris for 10 days, to attend
a conference in
preparation for the COP21 meetings at the end of the year. It was
opened by Ségolène Royale, the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in the
UNESCO Headquarters, which contains great art,
including Calder and
Picasso. On the 4th
of July, I gave a brief talk on climate change at a barbecue of the
University of Ouisconsin Alumni Association of Paris at
a member's home in
the suburbs. There were even a few sparklers. It was very hot, so we
spent some time in museums, which were air conditioned, and were able to
show Lili the Louvre (new Arab art exhibit,
Winged Victory, Venus de
Milo, crowds around the Mona
Lisa, stopping for snacks) and the D'Orsay (nice
places to sit, and to have a snack), as she had never been to Paris before.
No more lovelocks on the bridges.
I jumped for joy at the Eiffel Tower, where there
was a horse-jumping tournament. Our friends
Paul and Laure took us to get coffee
in an electric Autolib. We stayed in the 7th for the first time, as that is where my meeting was at
UNESCO, but it does not have the charm of the 5th. Still,
it was great to be in Paris again.
In July I
taught at a summer school at Penn State as part of my geoengineering project
there. The students were great, including a postdoc from Iran, who was
able to arrange an invitation for Sherri and me to visit in January.
As things progressed, we ultimatly decided to postpone the trip due to the
political situation, but if and when we go, it will be interesting. My
colleague and friend Anja Schmidt stopped by in NJ on her way to NCAR, and
took me paddleboarding for the first time, on the Glimmer Glass.
Unfortunately, I have no photos. But here is a picture of
her flying a drone, which Annmarie Carlton and her
students let us try. I took her to the
Ocean Grove Auditorium for a concert, where we ran into
Tony and Cheryl.
At the end of
August, we visited Jerry and Stephie at their new home in Maine. It is
in a spectacular location, walking distance to the ocean
and a beautiful shore, and with
a dock to
go kayaking on an inlet. We ate lobster rolls and relaxed, and found
the mattress so comfortable that we bought one for our house.
In September I celebrated my 66th birthday - how
did I get this old?
In October, we went to the National Power Lifting Championships in Scranton,
Pennsylvania (a new experience), where we saw Allison compete. We had
dinner with her team at her coach's family home not too far from Scranton. For
Thanksgiving, we hosted much of my family, including
Bill and Laura Salganik,
who drove up from Maryland, Lisa and Steve, who flew in from California,
Allison, who took the train from Virginia, and Jerry's family, who drove
from Cleveland, Yorktown Heights, and NYC. It was a lot of fun, and we
got to keep the leftovers. Hanne could not make it for Thanksgiving,
but visited during Hanukkah.
I took my usual trips to NCAR in October and the Fall AGU meeting in
San Francisco in December. And as usual on both occasions it was great
to catch up with old friends and colleagues. AGU had a professional
photographer providing head shots, and I
needed a new one. Some of my Chinese former
grad students, Haibin Li, Lili Xia, and Chaochao Gao, took me out to a
delicious Chinese meal. I got to see Elon
Musk (with AGU President Margaret Leinen) and Al Gore.
Gore was on a high after the agreement in Paris, thanking all of us for our
science, particularly the IPCC, and quite inspiring.
We did not see Bob Dylan this year, but saw a lot of great music:
Christine Lavin in May, Tom Paxton in July,
Judy Collins in August, the
Beach Boys at the old auditorium in Ocean Grove
in August, a Doo Wop Concert also in Ocean
Grove in August, including the Crystals,
Gene Chandler, and Bill Haley
and the Comets, and Arlo Guthrie in November,
doing a 50th anniversary tour of Alice's Restaurant.
Our solar panels (photovoltaic, shown here
with our hybrids and a rainbow)
continue to work well. Here is an updated graph
of our electric bill for the past few years. It is still easy to see when we
turned the solar panels on.
Although Sherri thought it was funny
to take a picture with Star Wars advertisers, I
though the movie was horribly violent, with graphic killing, mass genocide,
and even planetcide. Here is the best comment on it I have seen.
I didn't get to spend enough
time with the grandkids this year, but when I did I
read to Danny and hugged them,
We went to the
Wisconsin-Rutgers game
in Madison where we spent a great weekend at the end of
October with my two college roommates, Gene and Ian and their wives,
Norma and Ellen. Gene arranged for us to have brunch at
Chancellor Rebecca Blank's mansion before the game, where
we met Bucky
(I gave him greetings from the Scarlet Knight).
It rained during the
game, but not heavily. We walked across
campus, and visited the Mifflin Street Co-op and
Picnic Point for old
times sakes. I visited the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Department and gave a talk (standing room only). They are using
the legacy from my uncle Len very wisely, with the most recent annual
lectures by Mike Mann,
Kerry Emanuel, and
Katherine Hayhoe.
Wisconsin did not go to the Rose Bowl this year again,
but did play in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 30, 2015, and beat USC
23-21. They look like they'll be quite good next year.
Sherri:
2015 was a year of travel, visits with friends and family, spending time with “my littles,” Danny, now 5, and Vivi, 3, and, for me, THE BIG 70! Despite the political turmoil that is roiling so much of this country and the world, this past year was so enjoyable, as Al has already related, but these are some of my memories.
In May I went to Spain with two history colleagues,
Jane Scimeca and Tony Snyder, my longtime friend, and co-author of our book,
Readings in Global History. We visited key places in Andalucia, the area of Southern Spain where the Muslims established a magnificent and multicultural society from the 8th
to the 14th centuries. Our guides were wonderful and knowledgeable, and clued us in to some of the best spots to get great views such as in Madrid, overlooking many of the city sights. Here’s
another one of us at the Alhambra, in Granada. Another fascinating spot that we visited was Cordoba, the capitol of Muslim Spain during its Golden Age of tolerance which included a visit to the Mezquita, the
mosque-cathedral that is absolutely stunning.
Food, flamenco, fantastic historical and artistic sights such as
Columbus’ tomb, and friends—it was a spectacular trip, complete with
the tasty treat I’m eating here, churros and hot chocolate.
I celebrated my October 11th 70th birthday a few times, beginning with
a surprise birthday flan at our monthly Dining for
Women dinner. My good friends, Joan Rykiel and George Brinton,
had a party
as well, and a few weeks later I attended the Hampton High School Class 70th Birthday Bash,
where I wore a shirt special for the occasion. And, as if that wasn’t enough, my sisters, Gina and Jeffy, who
live in the area, gave me and my brother Tom, whose birthday is also in October, another party, and I got another
tee-shirt decorated with a picture of me around age 8 and with my family nickname “Pethead.” But the most important
part of that weekend was hanging out with them, visiting our homes in Newport News and Hampton, seeing family, as well
as doing a reprise of a picture we took in the early 1980’s—here they are:
1980s and 2015. Thanks to yoga and attempts
at exercise, and sort-of watching my diet (I watch it all the way to dessert and then it somehow disappears!), I’m in good
health and plan to take advantage of being able to get around and keep up with the grandkids, though
Danny is getting faster
every day, with Vivi close behind.
In addition to the travel I’ve spent a bit of time in California—approximately three weeks before we went to
Hawaii in March, several times during the summer, and a recent trip in November. Aside from the Discovery Museum and the movies
we saw in August because it was so hot there, we took the kids for swim lessons, which both enjoyed, as well as the Lego
Club at the Sausalito Library and playing in the nearby parque, as well as
walking on the boardwalk. Danny is now an
“expert” at the monkey bars, by his less-than-modest but frequent admission, and
Vivi is addicted to her swing. I also had a
chance to see friends, Marilyn, a high school friend who has recently moved to Napa, as well as her grandchildren when
we visited Train Town, Camille Wehner, and Bob and Sureyya Bornstein, who treated us to a wonderful dinner a few weeks ago.
Brian, whose BIG 4-0 is this July!, and Ginger continue to do well in their jobs and as parents. We had a great time with them in Hawaii
and this past Christmas, spent a week with them and Ginger’s family in New Orleans. During my trips to CA I’m able to spend time with
them all and their
nanny, Lulu, and here are some pictures of our activities in both places—Brian and kids at Ocean Beach, where
Brian loves to surf,
Ginger and family, and me crashing a party for Star Wars, which we saw with the kids. In New Orleans, we decorated
their Charlie Brown tree,
walked in Audubon Park, visited the World War II Museum,
ate yummy New Orleans food (including some pizza, which was surprisingly good we New Jersey pizza-snobs thought!), and walked around the neighborhood in Uptown,
near Tulane and the park—see the map on Vivi’s face. We also strolled along Magazine Street, where I saw
this picture in support of Paris in an art
gallery window. Following a tradition in our house,
Danny and Vivi also made cookie houses, which Vivi found irresistibly delicious as noted by her frequent
trips to the kitchen counter where she would disappear for a few minutes, only to be discovered by the crunching sound she made as she “unfurnished,”
then consumed, some of the decorations! We got
Danny and Vivi bikes for Christmas.
Dan began a new job as a deli clerk at a small but well-regarded supermarket,
Nuggets, near their home. He moved back into the basement of Brian’s house—so I had to give up my granny cave and now it’s been renamed the
“Danny Cave.” He is devoted to Molly, Brian’s aging dog, walks their
newest one Pumpkin as well, and takes care of
the two outdoor cats. He is good with the kids as in
our recent Toys-R-Us excursion, and hopes to visit them in New Orleans soon. When I was there recently
he cooked a delicious steak dinner, and he came with us on several
visits to the park in Sausalito, and we also ate
at
a friend’s new restaurant in Novato, Bacon. He still is crazy about sports, likes his job because he has more support from fellow workers and the management provides nice benefits, is fanatic about his Honda, and enjoyed the trip with us to Hawaii. This February he’ll visit his father in Florida for a golf championship and, hopefully, he’ll visit us in New Jersey.
We had visits from Madoka Sato, a Japanese exchange student
back in the 1980s, who is now a history professor in Japan. He spent a
couple of weeks with us this summer and we had a chance to
partake of
lobster, along with visiting New York City, where we saw “The King and I” and visited some museums. As well, we had a chance to visit friends and former exchange family, Lorraine and Bill Beaver. Lorraine has had a long illness but is now recovering and in rehab and I visit her often. I’ve also seen former colleagues like
the History Department party this past May, and friends like
Tony Snyder, who celebrated his 75th birthday this summer, and Alan’s family at Thanksgiving. Another colleague and dear friend from Brookdale,
Ron Sopenoff, retired in June and we helped him celebrate with
his wife Cyndi. And we helped to
ring in his 70th birthday as well.
I’m most likely going to be teaching the Modern Middle Eastern History course online again, though with the present and frequent conflicts, it’s harder to teach but more important than ever for students to have the historical background to many of these current issues. In addition, I’m now the Vice Chair of the Monmouth County Human Relations Commission and helping to continue the group as it focuses on issues of bias and discrimination with a series of educational programs on issues ranging from homelessness to immigration/refugee situations, and am helping plan for another Big Read, a community reading project that will focus on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. I also exercise as often as I can, take courses on art history and other things of interest, and see friends often. I’m still not sure how active I’ll be in the upcoming political season. While I’m supporting Hillary, I also enjoy the freedom that not being scheduled in permits, and have been largely ignoring the Republican implosion, though savoring its predicament. With travel planned to Santa Cruz, London, Vienna, Potsdam, Norway, and, of course, New Orleans, 2016 will be another interesting year—can’t wait!
Please come visit the Jersey Shore, and wishing you and yours health and happiness.
May your 2016 be a healthy and fulfilling
one. Happy New Year!
Love,
Alan and Sherri
Alan: This has been
another year of spending time with family and several nice trips,
including more than three weeks in Paris and to Hawaii and Switzerland. It started off with me receiving the
Jule G. Charney Award from the
American Meteorological Society
(AMS) at the
annual meeting in Phoenix on January 7, 2015, “For fundamental contributions
toward understanding the climatic effects of stratospheric aerosols from volcanoes and other potential sources, and the role of soil moisture in climate.”
This is the second highest honor from the AMS, and it felt really great to
be honored by my peers. Charney was a great scientist, but also
concerned with people. He was a professor at MIT when I was a graduate
student there, and I was able to tell the AMS meeting of the example he set
by having anti-Vietnam-War signs on his office door. Thanks to Neil
Gordon for the photos.
