Latest News
Housy upsets Northwestern
Feb 05, 2025
Riley Klein
Housatonic Valley Regional High School girls varsity basketball snapped Northwestern Regional High School’s eight-game win streak Feb. 3. HVRHS won 51-40 and held Maddie Topa, No. 22, to 13 points. Going into the game, Topa was 16 away from reaching 2,000 total varsity points. Northwestern remained atop Berkshire League standings with a record of 15-2, followed by Gilbert School at 13-4 and HVRHS at 12-5.
Here comes climate change
Feb 05, 2025
Lately, people who in the past seldom gave it a second thought are beginning to talk about the weather.
The main reason, of course, has been the catastrophic wildfires forming the worst natural disaster in California’s history, still continuing with no clear end in sight. California has become known all over the world for the frequency and ferocity of its wildfires but this one is the worst so far. Climate change is clearly the underlying reason.
The year 2023 was the Earth’s warmest on record —until 2024. Climatologists tell us that the next few years are going to be hotter still. And the incoming Trump administration’s plan to burn more fossil fuel than ever before will guarantee more new record high temperatures.
For those who are unaware, the Earth’s atmosphere has a growing proportion of heat-blanketing “greenhouse gases,” especially carbon dioxide and methane, largely the result of the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. These gases lock in the heat of the sun’s rays in the atmosphere thereby heating up the air, the water and the land.
Oil companies have been avidly promoting what they call “carbon capture and sequestration,” the removal of carbon dioxide from the air and its capture and storage deep underground. The fossil fuel businesses believe that CCS provides a justification for using oil and gas indefinitely. But this technology is extremely expensive, potentially very dangerous and unworkable at anywhere near the scale needed to make a meaningful difference.
Global warming or climate change does not cause bad weather conditions; rather it seriously exacerbates them making them more severe. Warmer air allows clouds to hold more moisture and thus drop more rain in a storm. This summer’s catastrophic floods in Spain were made much worse because the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded and cut off from the Atlantic, warmed up significantly and together with the mountainous land along the coast turned typical floods into enormous ones.
Usually, hurricanes follow fairly predictable paths, staying generally along the coastline. But last summer’s Hurricane Helene veered into far west North Carolina causing massive storm and flood damage. Primarily this happened because of the mountainous terrain of the Blue Ridge chain of western North Carolina, which formed a natural barrier, forcing the storm’s moisture to condense, causing extreme rainfall in the valley near Asheville especially when combined with the already saturated ground from earlier storms.
In the middle of the country tornados are occurring with increasing frequency, arriving with little warning and causing considerable damage.
Across the world crippling heat waves hospitalized and even killed people unprepared for the incredible temperatures. All around the U.S. summer heat waves have been growing. Phoenix had temperatures over 100 degrees for more than a month. In India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia temperatures reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
Florida used to be the place much of America chose to get away to, either for a warm, sunny holiday or for retirement, escaping the harsh northern winters. But in addition to trying to cope with an enormous population explosion over the past 60 years, Florida has environmental problems that can’t be overlooked. As a peninsula flanked by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, Florida is battered by hurricanes more than any other state. A hurricane crashing onto the East Coast is likely to continue through the state’s narrow midsection and maintain its destructive path through to its west coast and beyond into other nearby states. As with other states that become resort areas, development has been overwhelmingly on or near the coasts where weather damage is greatest. Home insurance has become difficult to obtain. Rising seas, a worldwide phenomenon, is unusually acute and is coupled with sea water rising from below due to the porosity of the land underneath. As a result, Florida’s streets are often flooded when there has been no rain.
I used to think that forest fires were a problem mostly just for California and a few adjacent states. And to listen to Donald Trump and others one might think the problem would go away if only Democratic politicians would “maintain their forests.” But in the summer of 2023, the largest, most noticeable wildfires were happening in Quebec followed by others all across the U.S. and Canada. In the summer of 2024 there were even a batch of devastating wildfires in the Northeast that extended into New York City including Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a harbinger of what’s to come.
The Northwest Corner offers one of the most benign climates in the United States and this becomes especially true as the country’s climate becomes increasingly troubled. Connecticut was once called “the land of steady habits,” a reference perhaps to what many considered dull, excessive moderation. But with the increase in severe and often violent weather a more boring climate seems a decided plus. Over the past 40 years, the Northwest Corner has experienced no weather calamities worthy of national attention, the last one of note being the 1955 flood centered in Winsted. There’ve been only two tornados over the past 40 years — midwestern states usually have at least two per year — only modest hurricane damage and minor droughts. In recent years, unpleasant and often dangerous heat waves across the country have kept residents huddled indoors around their air conditioners but Northwest Corner folks can still enjoy summer out of doors.
The climate here remains more agreeable than it is in much of the rest of the country; but it is changing and at an increasing rate.
Architect and landscape designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.
Keep ReadingShow less
Letters to the Editor 2/6/25
Feb 05, 2025
SWSA Snow Ball thank you
As organizer of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association annual Snow Ball Dance, I want to send a big thank you out to the many people who made it happen again this year at the Lakeville Town Grove. Thanks to Stacey Dodge and her amazing team, the place was decorated perfectly for the event!
Also, a big thank you to the many volunteers who always come through to assist me at the event and dozens of local businesses who donated wonderful prizes to the annual Snow Ball raffle.
We had a fabulous turnout and some great music and the crowd danced the night away. We would also like to thank our friends at the Norbert Farm Brewery for their support. Without these people and businesses our event would not be possible. See you at our next SWSA event!
John Sullivan
On behalf of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association
‘Tallow’ as name for restaurant?
I’m happy that the old McDonalds building may host a new restaurant in Millerton. However, if they are promoting healthier eating they may want to rethink their name. Beef fat may strike the wrong note.
Just saying!
Dan Lewis
Lakeville
Appreciating Lakeville Hose Co. and Volunteer Ambulance Service
The Riva family would like to send a huge thank you to the outstanding volunteers from the Lakeville Hose Company and the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service. We had a chimney fire Thursday, Jan. 23, during dinner time that warranted a call to 911. Our volunteer fire personnel were here in 6 minutes — 4 firetrucks, an ambulance and other assorted rescue vehicles. Upon arrival, the EMT’s immediately checked on us. They were comforting, concerned and reassuring. We have lived in this community for over 32 years — my husband, his whole life.
The professionalism and efficiency was outstanding. We knew once we saw the trucks in front of the house, that they had everything under control. We can’t thank them enough for responding so quickly on this freezing night to help us. It is remarkable the amount of time these volunteers give to this town and citizens. The care and compassion they showed emulated through this house, it was heartwarming.
After our incident, it just reconfirmed why as a community we need to work hard and make it a priority to develop affordable housing for our EMT’s, fire personnel, and others in our community. We need these volunteers residing in our town.
A heartfelt thank you to Lakeville Hose Company and The Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
Bob & Charmaine Riva
Lakeville
Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic
The hackneyed response on Jan. 30, 2025, from various Israel supporters in our community to my Jan. 16 letter to The Lakeville Journal regarding the genuine benefits of making Israel the 51st state was totally expected. They reflexively used the cliché that criticizing Israel, a foreign country, is antisemitic. If anyone criticizes the policies of the U.S. government, does that make them anti-American? Of course not. Is Israel uniquely beyond reproach? It seems so to them. Are Israelis too special to criticize? Absolutely not.
The authors of the letter against me couldn’t help themselves by resorting to name calling, suggesting how obnoxious and antisemitic I am. Isn’t that a bit personal and over the top coming from my neighbors? It is ironic that I, as a proud American with Lebanese ancestry, am probably more semitic than the Jewish writers of the letter against my views. What Eastern European countries did their ancestors come from that gives them standing over the indigenous people of the Middle East?
It is telling that the authors of the letter never once addressed the basic premise of my letter that Israel becoming the 51st state would be a win-win for both the U.S. and Israel by guaranteeing Israel’s security while giving the indigenous people of the land, namely the Palestinians, equal rights. Do they believe in apartheid?
Many Israelis and their supporters continue to perpetuate the myth that they are the poor victims when they are indeed the aggressors. They have all the weapons and power, and they continue to massacre tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have few weapons, no air force, and most certainly no support of the most powerful military nation in the world, namely the U.S. They are hardly victims. That’s a myth.
The writers of the letter expectedly took issue with my use of the word holocaust — and genocide — to define what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, as if the term is “owned” exclusively by Jews. Rather than address the atrocities being committed by the Israelis, they point to genocides occurring elsewhere in the world, as if that makes the genocide being committed by Israel more acceptable. In fact, most countries as well as the International Criminal Court view Israel as committing crimes against humanity. So I guess that means Israel, the U.S. government, and some of its European vassal states are correct, and the entire rest of the world is totally wrong and misguided. This is the ultimate in arrogance.
We are now one quarter way through the 21st century. Isn’t it about time that we decided that no one group is special or better than the other? That no matter what their religion or lack of one, all humans deserve equal dignity and justice?
Lloyd Baroody
Lakeville
Keep ReadingShow less
loading
