North Reading Middle School - December 7

42° 34' 36" N
71° 05' 17" W
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The EarthView team has visited North Reading several times. The most recent visit was almost exactly a year ago, on the last day of important climate-change meetings in South Africa. Similarly, this year's major climate-change meeting is ending on the day of our visit. It is being held in Doha, Qatar.

Qatar is a small country that emits three times as much carbon per person as the United States; in fact, it has the highest carbon emissions rate in the world. Qatar allowed its first-ever legal protests by visitors who objected to the contrast.

Protesters in Doha; image from Gulf Business

December 7 is also, of course, the "day that will live in infamy," according to President Franklin Roosevelt, as it was the 1941 date of the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States into World War II. That single event was the beginning of many profound changes in the political and economic geography of the entire world.

Pearl Harbor was struck by planes flying from a nearby aircraft carrier. In 1966, the U.S. Government Printing Office produced maps that showed the path that had brought the carrier close to the island, and its route back to Japan.

Image: WikiMedia