Donald Trump's Golf Course Scarily Threatened By Global Warming; Rest Of Us Just Fine

Donald Trump's views on climate change are kinda
incapsulated here.  

Donald Trump isn't much of a climatologist or meteorologist.

He's a famous climate change denier. A couple of winters ago, New York had a nasty winter cold wave. Temperatures got into the single numbers and wind chills were below zero.

He Tweeted that was "proof" that global warming is a hoax.

Last Christmas Eve, New York was in the throes of a remarkable winter hot spell. Record high temperatures well into the 70s had men playing basketball and ultimate frisbee shirtless, Last minute Christmas shoppers sweated it out in the heat.

Not a word from Trump that the December heat was "proof" of global warming.

Of course, a single New York cold snap or a couple days of strange New York winter heat don't do anything to prove or disprove climate change, but never mind,

He's Donald Trump, and he's decided that the global warming is a plot by the Chinese to ruin our economy by trying to make us make pointless precautions against the "fake" global warming crisis.

To Trump, there is no global warming.

Except, of course,  around his golf course in Ireland.

Says Politico:

"The New York billonaire is applying for permission to erect a coastal protection works to prevent erosion at his seaside golf resort, Trump International Golf Lines and Hotel Ireland, in County Clare.

A permit application for the wall, filed by Trump International Golf Links Ireland was reviewed by Politico, explicitly cites global warming and its consequences - increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century - as a chief justification for building the structure."

Trump says as president, he'd dismantle climate treaties and promote American production of fossil fuels to make the U.S. the dominant producer of oil, gas, coal etc.

So, Trump says publicly that global warming is nothing to worry about, but behind the scenes, he worries about it if it threatens his business or political interests.

What else is he doing behind the scenes?

He apparently says what he wants to believe. Trump also made waves at a recent California rally when he said that California is not having a drought at all. 

Which is news to just about everybody, including the U.S. Drought Monitor, which has most of California still in a drought, and some parts of the state still in extreme drought, despite some rains over the winter.

Trump, I think, was talking about the complicated task in California of allocating water correctly for agriculture, homes, wildlife, business, etc.

But just waving your hands and saying there's no drought is a bit much.

Trump probably thinks that he's powerful enough, if he says something, it is automatically so.  A little  dollop of hypocrisy makes him all the more obnoxious.

Which would make him a dangerous president in a lot of ways, including in the arena of climate change.

Gloomy Weather Makes Your Boss Very, Very Happy

Early this afternoon in Vermont, it was overcast, chilly, damp, raw.

I took an extremely brief break while working hard
at my home office in St. Albans, Vermont to take
this shot of a gloomy early afternoon.
Apparently, we're more productive in this weather.  

Yucky.

Which means your boss is probably overjoyed at this point.

Hat tip to The Capitol Weather Gang today for alerting us to a study that shows bosses like lousy weather because it makes employees more productive, i.e. profitable for the company.

The study is sort of a Captain Obvious document, because admit it, when it's gorgeous outside and you're stuck in the office reviewing accounts receivables budget spreadsheets, you're distracted and would rather be outdoors.

The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School compiled research from Japan that showed productivity in banks is higher on rainy days than on nice days.

Researchers also looked at the quality and quantity done in workplaces in the United States and were able to show that more work got done on gloomy days.

This might mean investors might want to locate their offices in cloudier parts of the country. Are you listening, Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development?

Of course, if we start advocating Vermont's cloudy skies to businesses, it might set off a war with another agency, the Vermont Tourism Department.

However, if your company thrives on risk taking rather than productivity and accuracy, maybe cloudy cities aren't the answer. Risk taking improves in sunny weather, according to UNC.

Now, I have bad news for your boss if he or she happens to be in Vermont. I notice as of 1:30 p.m. that the rain is beginning to taper off in the Champlain Valley, and patches of blue sky seem to be approaching from the west.

So you'd better get that spreadsheet work finished, pronto.