I'm spending my second night in Prince George, for good reason. I arrived here from Williams Lake around 3:30, tired and very hot. I had bought a car thermometer in Quesnel when I stopped there for an interview with John King at the Cariboo Observer, and the interior temperature climbed to over 40 degrees Celsius by the time I pulled up at the Sandman Motel. I think I was seriously dehydrated, for this morning early on I couldn't get my mouth to work properly, let alone my brain. So I think I will just have to turn on the car air conditioner, at least in the afternoon. Otherwise, I may get seriously ill.

I hate to increase my fuel consumption, though. I've been doing so well. I'm averaging five litres per 100 kilometres, in spite of the heavy load I'm carrying, and that's about as good as it gets.

I've been talking to people about how great it is to have a fuel consumption gauge in my car. That instantaneous readout really makes you aware of your driving habits. I think our government ought to require that all cars sold in Canada have these devices installed. And I think also that there must be a way to retrofit older cars with these great energy saving gadgets.

Does anyone have any ideas about how this can be done?

There's a record-breaking heat wave here, 15 C above what it was at the same time last year. This, coupled with the dead pine trees you see in big patches now, makes for a volatile situation, and as a matter of fact, there's a wildfire burning on Tumbler Ridge nearby, and 5500 people have been evacuated. The effects of global heating are really being felt here. Because it's warmer and drier than anyone can remember, the swarms of pine bark beetles are truly decimating the forests.

I had a chance to do interviews with both the newspapers here, with Bernice at The Prince George Citizen and Arthur Williams at The Prince George Free Press. I also did an TV interview with Carolina at PGTV, which I enjoyed. In each case, I found the people I talked to receptive and interested. I talked about some of the scientific data I been reading about and how important it is that every citizen of our country learn a few basic facts and add a few words to their vocabulary. Like "albedo." That's a very important word, and should become one we use almost daily. It refers to the ability of our Planet to reflect the sun's rays back into space. To help with this, our World has two big mirrors, the Polar Ice Cap and Antarctica. The loss of either of these reflective surfaces will mean big trouble for life on Earth.

I'll write more about this tomorrow. I want to get to bed really early tonight and get going at first light if I can. I want to get to Smithers to do an interview in the afternoon.