I’ll stop the world and melt with you
Inexpensive backyard products can keep you cool as planet heats up

Feelin’ hot, hot, hot?

Of course you are. The first day of summer brought record-breaking triple-digit temperatures to the North Bay.

You could duck into a nice, cool, air-conditioned movie theater. But then you might wind up seeing Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” about how humankind is causing global warming through its ever-increasing use of fossil fuels.

You can watch as Gore breaks through arctic ice near the north pole in a nuclear submarine. He explains that U.S. Naval records show the polar ice cap has thinned by about 40 percent since the 1950s. Gore also points out that nine of the 10 highest recorded annual average temperatures have taken place since 1990.

Don’t believe Al Gore? Well, super-genius Stephen Hawking, the wheel-chair bound theoretical physicist, recently told a group of Chinese students that he was very worried about global warming and feared the Earth “might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid.”

Yow!

But by spending anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred dollars, you can keep your backyard feeling less Venus-like (at least for the time being).

Slip ‘N Slide: Wham-O, Inc., the Baby Boomer-era toy company that manufactured such classics as the slingshot, Frisbee, Silly String and Hula Hoop, introduced the Slip ‘N Slide to America’s backyards in 1961. The basic idea is simple: take a sheet of plastic, turn on the garden hose and slide. But the Emeryville-based Wham-O has a whole line of Slip ‘N Slides, ranging from the bare-bones, under-$20 Wave Rider to the all-the-bells-and-whistles, roughly $500 Super Splash Tunnel, a 10-and-a-half-foot high, 22-foot-long inflatable backyard waterslide that’s wide enough for two kids and includes a large splash pool. Slip ‘N Slides are for sale at such places as Target and Wal-Mart. For details and information about where to buy, see Wham-O’s Web site at www.wham-o.com.

Super Soaker: Wham-O may have the Slip ‘N Slide, but toymaker Hasbro makes the Super Soaker, a water pistol on steroids. Choices range from the “Liquidator” model, an air pressure-powered water gun that retails for $7.99, to the “Max Infusion Overload,” which has three modes of “blasting” that allow you to hit targets up to 30 feet away and a 100-ounce capacity backpack. To purchase or for more info, check Hasbro’s Super Soaker Web site at www.hasbro.com/supersoaker/.

Free showerhead, garden sprayer: If you’re a resident of the city of Sonoma or an outside-of-city-limits customer of the Valley of the Moon Water District, you can stroll down (‘cause driving contributes to global warming!) to the Sonoma City Hall on the Plaza or to the water district’s headquarters at 19039 Bay Street and pick up a free, water-efficient garden sprayer with which you can hose down yourself and others in the backyard, as well as a water-efficient showerhead, ideal for cold showers inside the home.

Inflatable Pools: About one in five new pools sold in the United States are inflatable pools that range in price from $50 to $750 and are for sale at such major retailers as Wal-Mart and Target. Larger models can be several feet deep and hold as much as 5,000 gallons of water. That’s according to Consumer Reports, which warns that inflatable pools aren’t necessarily all fun and games.

“These inflatable pools may often be used without safety fences, alarms, covers, and other gear required with larger pools,” the magazine said. “Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics show that 250 children under age 5 drown in pools each year, and another 1,800 are treated for submersion injuries.”

So keep safety in mind if you’re considering an inflatable pool, and think about installing a protective fence or constantly supervising kids who use it.

With that off your mind, you can kick back in the inflatable pool with a cold drink and watch the ice cubes melt — just like the polar ice caps!