Air Date: Week of April 24, 2009

It’s amazing what better lighting can do. The spring sun’s rising position in the sky gives those gray winter clouds a new silver lining in this installment of the ECOcalendar project’s Ecotime.

Transcript

YOUNG: It’s Living on Earth. I’m Jeff Young.

[ECOtime theme]

Around every dark cloud there’s – well, you know – a silver lining. And now that – at last - it really feels as if winter has past, the folks at the ECOcalendar project are looking to the heavens to capture cosmic moments – in this audio snapshot we call ECOtime.

HARDMAN: The Silver Lining. Winter clouds are often dark and brooding, and yet these same thick clouds are now traveling across the spring sky but they seem less foreboding. It may be because spring is here and these clouds won't be delivering snow and sleet anymore. But maybe it's also because of how they're lit. All winter long the sun's been traveling along the southern horizon, lighting the clouds from the side. But the sun has been steadily moving higher into the sky and is now above them. So now, these same dark clouds have silver linings because they're backlit. The sun is lighting up their edges, and whenever there's a break between the clouds a shaft of sunlight descends.

YOUNG: That's Chris Hardman with ECOtime, part of the ECOcalendar project. For more, check our website loe.org.