Monthly Archives: November 2021

: : A WEEKEND GETAWAY : : IZAMAL : :

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Hacienda Hotel Santo Domingo, @ cruz de  c.18  y  c.33,  Izamal, Yucatan

We wanted to travel a bit, safely, so we headed to what I think of as the Indigenous capital of Yucatan, Izamal – (we live in the Hispanic and political capital, Mérida).  Izamal is about 72 kilometers (45 miles) to the east of Mérida, and north of the Cancún highway on Route 11.  It took us about 100 minutes from centro to centro to get there, driving leisurely.  The express bus is probably faster (scroll to From Mérida to Izamal).

We had a delightful stay at Hacienda Hotel Santo Domingo, which is run by Harald, an affable man from Austria, and his lovely Mexican wife, Sonia. Harald studied tourism as a lad, and his design-sense is excellent. They have twelve rooms in an elegant facility, depicted at their website.

Dining room where we enjoyed a fine candle-lit dinner.

Poolside breakfast

The hotel is nestled quietly on the outskirts of the city, a short ten-minute walk to centro, straight down c.33.

Handsome cabs (calesas) are lined up, while a tour group listens to a guide.

After a relaxing visit in a gentle setting, it’s back to the city of the conquistadores.

Mérida :   the remate, Paseo Montejo @ c.47

 

!! NUCLEAR SOLUTION TO AIR POLLUTION !!

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Photo by Trougnouf, via Wikimedia Commons: Doel, Belgium

Carbon pollution is so much riskier than radioactive pollution.  The Three Mile Island nuclear accident (1979) rocked me, but on further reflection (and documented carbon pollution trends) I’ve come around to recognizing that the world needs nuclear energy if we are not to smother ourselves in carbon toxins, which are much more deadly than risks of nuclear accidents.  

I’ve recently finished reading a book about carbon titled Symphony in C, (where c=carbon) by Professor Robert Hazen, of the Deep Carbon Observatory.  And today I’ve pondered an interview with nuclear advocate Michael Shellenberger, about our need for nuclear generation.  (Note:  Schellenberger is dismissive of much environmental activism, so I suggest skipping forward to his central thesis in the linked interview, beginning with the subhead Nuclear Existential Anxiety where he effectively deconstructs our nuclear dread.

On a positive note is this very upbeat essay by Rebecca Solnit  on ten ways to confront the environmental crisis without losing hope. (It’s a bit long, but very worthwhile.)

Wolfsburg, Germany. Photo by Felipe Tureba/EPA.

> > > UPDATE :  Friend Jim Conrad at BackyardNature.net shared an important counter argument, from a retired nuclear engineer, on the many problems of fusion energy, detailed at the BULLETIN OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS