Happy Holidays!

First of all: a very Merry Christmas to all ThinkingShift readers, that is if you celebrate it. If you don’t, maybe you’re just having a relaxing time off work and enjoying a Happy Holiday. I have one week and a bit off. I plan to produce my first photography book using a self-publishing site. Wish me luck as I will have to grapple with the software and fret about design.

But today, I am spending Xmas with a great friend of mine, her mother and brother and my husband. Hopefully, plenty of photo opps as there will be dogs, the beach and water involved.

Meanwhile, whilst we are coping with the GFHF (global financial hissy fit), let’s not forget the environment and global warming. Two stories caught my attention recently that offer evidence of climate change. In Southern California’s Santa Rosa Mountains, ten dominant plant species are migrating up the slopes because the weather at the foot of the mountains is now too warm. Comparing data from a 1977 study and new studies from 2006 and 2007, researchers found that nine of the 10 species moved up the mountain, altogether averaging a 213-foot gain in elevation.

And NASA’s satellites are revealing some pretty bad news. More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003 and at least half of this loss has occured in Greenland. Of course, this is pretty serious as land-locked ice melting in Greenland would cause sea-levels to rise (approximately half a millimeter of sea level rise a year). Alaska has lost 400 billion tons of land ice. Between Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska, melting land ice has raised global sea levels about one-fifth of an inch since 2003.

Well, to cheer us up, I will leave you with some of my favourite LOLCats enjoying a kitty Xmas!