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Apr 9th: Stop Global Warming College Tour Blog: Dallas
| Posted on 4/10/2007
What fresh hell is this? 4 hours sleep, it’s still-dark-early and get this, Starbucks, although tantalizingly next door to the hotel, is not open. Frantic rattling of the door, banging on the glass with my two hands over my head a la Hoffman in the Graduate soon had them accepting that my need was much more than just casual. OK I’ll be honest- they opened five mins before we left.
Trundling across town in one of those airport shuttle type busses we anticipated the lights, camera, action of Good Morning America and were kind of late, so much so, that we organised the order of departure from the bus like a bunch of paratroopers. “Laurie and Sheryl first! 30 seconds“ We halted. They leapt into the arms of a technician who hooked them up with microphones and they made the 7am opening hello with Sam Champion.
And that’s pretty much how the rest of the day went. Bang, bang, bang. From there we were back to the hotel for a heartbeat before Laurie and Sheryl went to the Dallas Morning News editorial meeting. From there to the press conference which featured no less than 3 mayors from Texas- one of whom focussed on health threats created by global warming- nile virus, malaria and even dengue fever due to a plethora of mosquitoes, allergies will become more intense- like fire being a good servant but a poor master heat is a good incubator to evil strains of malady.
Back to the hotel, and on going thru the hotel bills I am reminded that over dinner the other night Laurie convinced NRDC member Tim Greef to join the tour as an expert from which they can plunder his treasure chest of knowledge on all things global warming. He can tell you why nuclear power is clean, yet surpisingly expensive, heavily funded by the govt. never mind dangerous (like this govt.) and how there is a waiting list for storing spent fuel cells in Yucca Mountain, Nevada and that the circumference of the safe zone for that deadly area keeps surreptitously expanding every year. He can also tell you how a man from New Jersey is making (near) fortunes by renting out the roofs of disused factories, placing solar panels on them and generating power on a space that nobody cares about. Tim is a man who is never without an answer.
The show, as you have probably read everywhere went smoothly and the Q&A was not the definition of a pregnant pause that I had anticipated and was actually quick fire and informative.
We jumped on the bus, nibbled at two pizzas...quaffed a couple of beers, rearranged the recycling bin (read the sink), the girls tried on their global warming pajamas, there were random intensive discussions on the front of the bus and quiet personal calls at the back of the bus and within a few hours we were in College Station and I was setting my 3 alarm calls which I would sleep right through the next morning, which, incidentally will be the first time since Paris January 1995 when due to my oversleeping we nearly missed the Concorde to JFK.
But that my friends, is just another story.
CH
Trundling across town in one of those airport shuttle type busses we anticipated the lights, camera, action of Good Morning America and were kind of late, so much so, that we organised the order of departure from the bus like a bunch of paratroopers. “Laurie and Sheryl first! 30 seconds“ We halted. They leapt into the arms of a technician who hooked them up with microphones and they made the 7am opening hello with Sam Champion.
And that’s pretty much how the rest of the day went. Bang, bang, bang. From there we were back to the hotel for a heartbeat before Laurie and Sheryl went to the Dallas Morning News editorial meeting. From there to the press conference which featured no less than 3 mayors from Texas- one of whom focussed on health threats created by global warming- nile virus, malaria and even dengue fever due to a plethora of mosquitoes, allergies will become more intense- like fire being a good servant but a poor master heat is a good incubator to evil strains of malady.
Back to the hotel, and on going thru the hotel bills I am reminded that over dinner the other night Laurie convinced NRDC member Tim Greef to join the tour as an expert from which they can plunder his treasure chest of knowledge on all things global warming. He can tell you why nuclear power is clean, yet surpisingly expensive, heavily funded by the govt. never mind dangerous (like this govt.) and how there is a waiting list for storing spent fuel cells in Yucca Mountain, Nevada and that the circumference of the safe zone for that deadly area keeps surreptitously expanding every year. He can also tell you how a man from New Jersey is making (near) fortunes by renting out the roofs of disused factories, placing solar panels on them and generating power on a space that nobody cares about. Tim is a man who is never without an answer.
The show, as you have probably read everywhere went smoothly and the Q&A was not the definition of a pregnant pause that I had anticipated and was actually quick fire and informative.
We jumped on the bus, nibbled at two pizzas...quaffed a couple of beers, rearranged the recycling bin (read the sink), the girls tried on their global warming pajamas, there were random intensive discussions on the front of the bus and quiet personal calls at the back of the bus and within a few hours we were in College Station and I was setting my 3 alarm calls which I would sleep right through the next morning, which, incidentally will be the first time since Paris January 1995 when due to my oversleeping we nearly missed the Concorde to JFK.
But that my friends, is just another story.
CH
