mother nature's warning

In England last week, the newest addition to our family, two-week old Alaska Rose, spent a scary night in hospital. Despite her mom’s best efforts to keep her precious new baby cool, Alaska Rose’s tiny body simply overheated. Had her parents dithered and not rushed her to hospital, doctors say she might well have gone into seizure and worse.

Also in England last week, during 40-degree centigrade (100F) temperatures, the BBC said "Get used to it!" They reported that Britain’s typically moderate summer temperatures will regularly reach over 100F within the next ten years.

Back here in the USA, more than 50 people lost their lives as a direct result of last week's heat wave. With temperatures soaring as high as 52C (that’s 125.6F!) in parts of California, the Fresno County Coroner, Loralee Cervantes, said so many bodies had arrived she couldn’t give an accurate figure for heat-related deaths. "We cannot keep up … we have capacity for 50 [bodies] and … no room for anyone else."

What's going on?

Tom Brokaw. Matt Damon. Al Gore. All three recently presented separate documentary films on global warming. All three films were slammed by right-wing critics as unbalanced, liberal, self-serving hogwash. Liberals struck back with accusations of right-wing conspiracy and denial theories.

One thing we can’t deny—because this is fact—is that the United States of America stands head and shoulders above every other nation when it comes to producing harmful greenhouse gases.

We consume. We toss. We throw. We are the world's biggest polluters. We waste more than any other nation on earth. And because of that, we take more from our planet than any other nation on earth.

So how do we justify being the only western industrialized country—along with Australia—who refuses to ratify the Kyoto Treaty?

Ratified by 141 nations, the 1997 agreement drawn in Kyoto, Japan, limits emissions from 35 industrialized countries and is estimated to reduce greenhouse gases by more than one billion tons by 2012. Although the Clinton regime was instrumental in drafting the Kyoto Protocol, President George W. Bush withdrew US support as soon as he took office. In fact, in March 2001, Bush was quoted as saying that the United States would never participate in the treaty since it would impact our bottom line; our economy.

Right. Left. Middle of the road. Who cares!

I care that little Alaska Rose has a healthy future and a healthy planet. And I trust you care that your children and grandchildren do too.


For more information on the Kyoto Treaty and to learn what you can do, see United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

shades of inspiration

A girl can only take so much and after a week fraught with major technical challenges, hours spent in plugged traffic, sweaty 90-degree heat, and the royal rip-off cowboy moving company, I decided enough is enough.

At the end of a teeth-clenching day, I looked up from the computer and smiled in silent awe as tingles of tension released in ripples down my spine.

When all else fails to inspire, Mother Nature never does.

kevin trudeau's natural cures

Call me contrary but I'm reposting this blog because someone left a rather nasty message demanding I "... pull it down now!"

Here you go babe: Bibi's Beat: kevin trudeau's natural cures.

give me a break big brother

I’ve been camping in my empty apartment again this week. All the furniture’s been shipped down to the house and I’m crashing on Eddie Bauer’s Luxury Insta-Bed, which any way you cut it, is still a blow-up bed. So I’ve cracked a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, which I’m drinking from a paper cup, and am sitting in my tweety bird jammies giving my new laptop a test run. Boy do I know how to live!

Makes sense to leverage the apartment since most of this month’s business is in Seattle. But now it's empty and there’s nothing to do other than write, read, practice yoga, yak on the phone, eat Ben & Jerry’s, or watch the small portable TV I used to keep in my studio for late night work stints. Tonight I’m bored. And I'm out of Ben & Jerry's. So—I’m really embarrassed to say this—I have one eye glued to a show that I’ve always refused to watch, and will never view again: Big Brother. The All-Stars. (…huh?)

What is with those people! Capital-A-Awful doesn’t begin to cover it. In the 30 minutes I’ve been cringing and cursing, the only person to hint at a modicum of integrity is the strikingly handsome, bearded Kaysar. And the only mildy interesting segment was when what's-his-name (the dumb one...okay that's not nice, the laid back one) left his towel on the bath tub and climbed out of the shower butt naked. The 'interesting bit', of course, was blurred out.

Please tell me what drives people to showboat their sneaky, spiteful, pitiful, conniving selves anywhere, let alone on national TV? They call it strategy. I call it ugly. They call it game. I call it pathetic. Do they really believe they’re destined to become the next great star? In the words of 20-20’s John Stossel—give me a break!

wanted: hunky stepford guy

7:25 am and Cole sends a priority text message. Check voicemail! So I duck out of my meeting to listen to his ever-so urgent message: “… sent seven emails. Where’ve you been? … don’t you know you’re supposed to blog at least once a week? S’posed to be a journal of what’s going on, what’s caught your eye, what’s on … [blah, blah, blah].”

Well, yes Cole, I’ve been told. But when you’re busy LIVING life, it’s sometimes challenging to make the time to actually sit down and catch up. When you’re temporarily living between two homes, and working from an Internet café because for the first time in 12 years you have no home Internet connection and your new studio looks as though an Israeli misfire landed—and then you have to waste precious minutes scavenging through hurriedly packed boxes looking for clean knickers and at least one of your three hairdryers and a steam iron (to hell with the board, I’ll do it on the floor) just to avoid looking like a startled alley cat—you feel caught somewhere between the simple life and Gehenna.

So I roll my eyes. Hit delete. And as I slide back around the conference table, decide that like many busy career women, what I need is not a husband (although they can be quite wonderful), but a Tom Selleck branded version of the Stepford wife. Now wouldn’t that be lovely.

just be

Whenever I lie tossing and turning at night, chasing ever-distancing sleep, I always think of the old Crystal Gale song, "... it's three o'clock in the morning, and it looks like it's gonna be another lonely night ..." Then I throw back the duvet and tiptoe into a darkened kitchen to make a cup of tea. (As do all good Brits—but that's a whole other blog!)

There's something special about three am; not quite night, not yet morning. And regardless of whether you have a have a silently sleeping partner, the stillness is palpable. It's a time when you can actually be still. And just be.

There's no one to call, no ringing phones, no beeping pagers, no screaming kids, no pressing or urgent in-your-face issues. And as the dawn chorus begins, and the lark heralds the untold promise of a new day, I snuggle into my robe and am glad to be alive in this world, experiencing this very moment.

Next time you find yourself fighting wakefulness, give in. Get up. Enjoy. And just be.