Joan Brown, osf, a Franciscan sister and Director of NM Interfaith Power & Light, is blogging from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which is happening Dec. 7-18. She went to Copenhagen with an international delegation of Franciscans.  She’s written three reflections so far, including a description of non-car transportation in Copenhagen.

I have arrived in commuter heaven. Travel by train, bus and metro is so easy and timely. After getting off the train and climbing the steps to street level, What to my wondering eyes should appear? No not reindeer, but hundreds of happy bicycles awaiting their owners return in the evening. Bikers greet me everywhere. Copenhagen has the third highest bike ridership per capita in the world.

Another New Mexican blogging from Copenhagen is Ken Hughes, who is the Conservation Committee Chair for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club:

Howdy from ground zero for climate change action.  I got here around noon and got a pass an hour later.  Then walking in it felt like I was at a UN event.  Then I remembered, it IS an UN event.  I’ve spoken to people from Oman, Sweden, UK, Nepal, Nicaragua, and even the USA.

In other blogs, how did I miss that Albuquerque Journal science writer John Fleck (who is one of Albuquerque’s smartest people) has written a book? It’s called The Tree Rings’ Tale, about our changing climate, and was written for young people.  Something tells me its a book for the masses…will be ordering mine today.

Moving along…some things can’t be helped. Pointing to this NM Watchdog blog about Manny Aragon’s castle is one of them. Yes, it’s his personal home and he wasn’t there to keep the camera at bay (because he’s in prison for stealing from New Mexico taxpayers). But given that he managed to transport a bunch of marble from the metro courthouse to his South Valley home (the construction of which gave him the opportunity for the stealing), it’s reasonable for taxpayers to see the fruits of their money.

Former Albuquerque mayor and current NM Natural Resource Trustee Jim Baca tells us on his blog this week that he’ll be retired by the time the legislative session starts, and intends to do some “serious blogging on the demeanor of the legislature” during the session to shine light on how badly some legislators treat state professional employees.  We will most definitely be reading, Jim.