Once upon a time, when the Earth’s crust was barely cool, I was a junior in high school and it was time for chemistry class. I was wild about atoms and molecules and now, at last, I was going to learn formally about them.

Most Americans of a certain age grew up hearing the adage: “Behind every great man is a great woman,” or some variation thereof.

A few years ago, I served on a panel as part of a National Academy of Sciences study titled “America’s Climate Choices.” One of the takeaway lessons from that study was that carbon dioxide has a very long residence time in the atmosphere, up to 1,000 years.

The interesting thing about the truth is that hard facts don’t bend to political spin.

Dee Clarke from Portland is single mother with three children and serious health issues. She wants to work, but for years her health was a barrier to holding down a good job. Like so many struggling families, Clarke needed to turn to the state for help.

In a previous column, I related some of the facts surrounding the huge cuts in the “core” of state revenue sharing and some of the effects on local municipalities.

The kids were intelligent, inquisitive, and way ahead of me on the issues of sustainability. When Hall-Dale teacher Bob Sinclair invited me to speak to his class of juniors and seniors studying sustainability, I was very pleased.

This just in from a new Esquire/NBC News study: There are more Americans in the vast middle than on either the left or right.