An item on National Public Radio (NPR) reminded me of one of Mae West's wonderful lines; "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." It told that bacteria provide a significant portion of the nucleating agents for snow (i.e. they act as the core or the nucleus for snowflakes). What was even more interesting to me was the advice given by physicians. They said we eat bacteria all the time, so snow as a source is no worse than any other, but we shouldn't encourage anyone to eat large quantities of snow because of the man-made pollutants also in the snowflakes. It was "dirty snow" not because of nature, but because of man. A few weeks earlier on NPR, I heard about projections by researchers at the Scripps Institute that there was a 50-50 chance Lakes Powell and Mead could be "dead pools," rendering them useless for supplying drinking water by the year 2021. What struck me as odd about both reports is the utter amazement that I heard in the voices of the newsreaders. A third NPR piece helped put the previous two into focus for me; not the content, just the surprise! It was an interview with Ann Jacoby on her new book, The Age of American Unreason.
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