Let's be clear Tom--climate change has been underway since, oh, forever. The question pertaining to Sandy is whether a recent warming trend since the 18th Century is producing "ever more destructive storms" or was Sandy simply a collision between an unseasonably cold airmass and a hurricane?
When it comes to hurricanes one prominent NOAA researcher says no, there's no evidence global warming is having an effect yet. Others agree but are holding out hope!
Now, one thing everyone knows with certainty is that more people are building homes near the ocean and areas susceptible to flooding. Tom is absolutely correct about over-development but he seemed to be suggesting some kind of top-down governmental fix (wake up call, plan for the future, etc). An easier way is to let the market take care of it. You want a house right on the beach or in a flood zone? You're gonna pay through the nose for insurance. If people get the idea the government will be there to back them up if they make risky choices they're more likely to make risky choices. Just look at the whole sub-prime disaster.
Showing posts with label disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disasters. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Here comes Isaac
Drudge is now heralding doom for New Orleans with a sensational headline comparing Tropical Storm Isaac to Category 4 Hurricane Katrina. He's linking to a Forbes story about some weather people who work in futures, ie, reminding everyone that somebody will likely make money off this possible future disaster depending on the outcome. That's our evil free market system at work.
Anyway, it's hard to believe Katrina was seven years ago this month. Hopefully they've strengthened the flood walls down there lest we have another disaster blamed on Bush. In reality the Landrieu family will be the ones on the hot seat this time if something happens because nothing rises to the top these days. They will surely have all the gutsy calls they can handle. Let's hope none of them fly off the handle, like last time.
Meanwhile, be careful what you say. After slightly mocking NOAA in an earlier post for sending Isaac to Tampa and the GOP convention they are now sending it to.. Memphis.
I get the message! So let's hope and pray that it fizzles out....and certainly not just for my sake.
COMPASSIONATE URINATING CONTEST 8/27/12
Expect we might hear something about this order Obama signed declaring Louisiana is now in a federal state of emergency. He's on the ball!
How many will point out that Bush did the same thing?
Anyway, it's hard to believe Katrina was seven years ago this month. Hopefully they've strengthened the flood walls down there lest we have another disaster blamed on Bush. In reality the Landrieu family will be the ones on the hot seat this time if something happens because nothing rises to the top these days. They will surely have all the gutsy calls they can handle. Let's hope none of them fly off the handle, like last time.
Meanwhile, be careful what you say. After slightly mocking NOAA in an earlier post for sending Isaac to Tampa and the GOP convention they are now sending it to.. Memphis.
COMPASSIONATE URINATING CONTEST 8/27/12
Expect we might hear something about this order Obama signed declaring Louisiana is now in a federal state of emergency. He's on the ball!
How many will point out that Bush did the same thing?
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Audacity of Leadership
The president's appearance on ESPN to discuss his NCAA basketball picks was embarrassing on two levels; one, because of his cheesy mention of the epic Japanese disaster in the midst of pretending to be a sports analyst, and two, his analysis--in depth enough to suggest he's been watching a lot of TV sports as the world crumbles around us. Then again, one of his sweet sixteen has already lost as of this writing, so he's got that going for him.Clearly he's not the first president to take a deep interest in sports or golf, but that's not the point. The point is one of optics--it looks bad for the president to be horsing around while hugely important events occur that demand attention. In times of calm, no problem. In times of calamity, even outside the country, people want a leader.
It's no coincidence Hillary is apparently making noises about all of this only a few weeks after Bill did. She knows what damage this is doing to her legacy (and future). If a bombshell breaks in the birther category sometime soon everyone will know the score (no, Trump is not a bombshell).
AC GETS RESULTS? 3/18/11
Calm down, I know everyone was saying the same thing. But my sitemeter did have a strange entry from whitehouse.
Anyway, the One has spaketh--it's on like Donkey Kong. In days, not weeks. After he gets back from Rio. Hey--if it becomes a dumb war he can blame it on Rio! Or not.. Er sorry, it's about jobs. Jobs, jobs. Laser focus.
MORE 3/18/11
The above is more or less gallows humor, there's no intention here of diminishing a very dangerous situation. The danger, along with the precedent set by taking actions against Quedaffy, are probably the reasons Obama has done so much dithering on the matter (no doubt after hoping and praying the rebels would somehow kill him and render moot his 'get out, damned one' command). That's understandable coming from a person who over-deliberates but it still wasn't an acceptable alternative due to the negative consequences of how a win for Moammar would destroy the image of the United States abroad, which has been my main beef.
But going into Libya militarily, even through the air, could be incredibly entangled and dangerous. This isn't Bosnia or Kosovo, this is a guy who harbored Abu Nidal and other terrorists and ordered the shoot-down of American and French jumbo jets. He's devious, conniving, ruthless and evil, and once had a WMD program.
The precedent might be more important. Bahrain is undergoing turmoil. Further south in Yemen the government is shooting people in the streets. If we go after Gadaffi what do we do when Syria, Jordan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia undergo their revolutions? Betcha Obama never thought this president stuff would be so hard.
MORE 3/19/11
Reports are coming in that French warplanes are attacking Libyan military targets to protect Benghazi; Huffpo has a headline picture of a jet crashing in a ball of flames.
Although it's mildly shocking to read about the French leading anything militarily, this development should not be overly unexpected considering that Sarkozy was the first to recognize the rebel forces and even set up an embassy in Benghazi. So politically speaking, he had more to lose than did our Indecision Guy.
Let's hope for the best and pray we don't lose any brave pilots. Gaddafi has a history of crumbling early and trying to regroup for sinister revenge actions later, so we'll see if a stray missile finds its way near his HQ at some point (amidst all the mayhem).
MORE 3/19/11
The flaming aircraft was actually a rebel plane shot down by friendly fire, obviously a hazard with a militia army. And McClatchy reports that Gaddafi forces are inside Benghazi, forcing press and civilians to flee towards Egypt. If Gaddafi takes the city he will immediately declare a cease-fire and vow to follow all the stipulations of the UN resolution. Then what?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Reactions
I don't know anything about nuclear power or the physics of radioactive fallout. But if it can be carried long distances by upper level Stratospheric winds then these wind forecast charts showing a 'zonal' or west-east flow of the jetstream across the Pacific don't look so good. Found this German site showing what appears to be a plume forecast. Most of the plumes don't reach North America, though, at least out through a week.
We have to wonder if sites like "Helium.com" advising west coasters to eat lots of brown rice to combat radiation sickness are reasonable or just stoking fear and panic. My guess--and it's just a guess--is that there's no big cause for alarm in North America, at least right now. After all, if the Commander-in-Chief is out playing golf things can't be all that bad.
We have to wonder if sites like "Helium.com" advising west coasters to eat lots of brown rice to combat radiation sickness are reasonable or just stoking fear and panic. My guess--and it's just a guess--is that there's no big cause for alarm in North America, at least right now. After all, if the Commander-in-Chief is out playing golf things can't be all that bad.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
The Flood of 10
Take a look at this map of the rainfall over Tennessee this past weekend..
That's upwards of three months of rainfall in one weekend for some spots, and river levels never seen before. People are still drying out from Memphis to Nashville, where perhaps a billion dollars of damage has occurred. Yes, with a B. Not to say this story hasn't been covered by the national press but even Google will ask if you really meant "a million" when entering "Nashville a billion dollars damage" in their search string.
Opryland will be closed for six months. The Navy base at Millington was swamped with hundreds of service people displaced and their important records system under repair causing the suspension of personnel actions across the system. A house floated down I-24. All fairly important stuff, but I guess a potential terror attack in Times Square was, too. Still, it's pretty bad when the mainstreamers can't even get interested enough to make the obligatory global warming comparisons, even down here in flyover Jesusland.
Oh well, as Hank Jr. says, country folk can survive, with or without crying mainstream media reporters. But if you'd like to help the many families who didn't have flood insurance because they weren't planning on a 500 year flood, here's one way..
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS.. 5/7/10
This has nothing to do with the flooding, but just caught me as a bit ironic. Speaking above of Google thinking the billion in damages was a typo for a million, the stock market spike of Thursday originally featured the explanation that a typo was made where a trader pushed a B for billion instead of an M for million.
Then lo and behold, in today's Memphis paper we have a story where a criminal defendant was given a "billion dollar bail". I actually heard this on the radio yesterday it was literally a laugh out loud moment while in traffic--just a tad overdone maybe? Now today they explain it was only supposed to be a million. Hey, millions, billions, trillions, who can keep them straight anymore?
That's upwards of three months of rainfall in one weekend for some spots, and river levels never seen before. People are still drying out from Memphis to Nashville, where perhaps a billion dollars of damage has occurred. Yes, with a B. Not to say this story hasn't been covered by the national press but even Google will ask if you really meant "a million" when entering "Nashville a billion dollars damage" in their search string.
Opryland will be closed for six months. The Navy base at Millington was swamped with hundreds of service people displaced and their important records system under repair causing the suspension of personnel actions across the system. A house floated down I-24. All fairly important stuff, but I guess a potential terror attack in Times Square was, too. Still, it's pretty bad when the mainstreamers can't even get interested enough to make the obligatory global warming comparisons, even down here in flyover Jesusland.
Oh well, as Hank Jr. says, country folk can survive, with or without crying mainstream media reporters. But if you'd like to help the many families who didn't have flood insurance because they weren't planning on a 500 year flood, here's one way..
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS.. 5/7/10
This has nothing to do with the flooding, but just caught me as a bit ironic. Speaking above of Google thinking the billion in damages was a typo for a million, the stock market spike of Thursday originally featured the explanation that a typo was made where a trader pushed a B for billion instead of an M for million.
Then lo and behold, in today's Memphis paper we have a story where a criminal defendant was given a "billion dollar bail". I actually heard this on the radio yesterday it was literally a laugh out loud moment while in traffic--just a tad overdone maybe? Now today they explain it was only supposed to be a million. Hey, millions, billions, trillions, who can keep them straight anymore?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Spilled Chocolate
Brietbart and Drudge are having fun with this clip of a Democratic congressman using 'spilled chocolate milk' to describe the oil slick. Not sure how that relates to earlier chocolate comparisons made about New Orleans by another Democrat, but overall it's pretty weak tea.
Clearly the congressman was trying to downplay a spill described as worse than the Exxon Valdez, not only for political reasons but most likely economic ones, but maybe he's correct. This CNN animation seems to show the slick shrinking today, and forecast to be even smaller tomorrow..
As the video shows, the slick started small and the Coast Guard was out there downplaying it early on. Obama was clearly being briefed, but sometimes things get out of control and information is wrong. When it grew they responded. There will always be second-guessing.
The criticism here should be more about perception and media coverage. On the former, Obama appeared aloof for a week, only sending subordinates while initially making a big issue out of the mining disaster in West Virgina. There was that big offshore drilling decision to worry about. On the latter, the media is indeed making it a big story but that story isn't so much about Obama or his politics, but about the slick. As it should be.
But we all know that if the oil men were still in the White House the story would be as much about their complicity/incompetence as the spill, with enviros and media hacks holding oil-coated birds while crying into the camera. We might even see someone like Spike Lee preparing a documentary about how a Cheney-led conspiracy including Halliburton probably blew the BOP in an effort to spike pump prices. Evidently the media has entered a world of balance where they no longer find it necessary to openly speculate or inflame such narratives.
Clearly the congressman was trying to downplay a spill described as worse than the Exxon Valdez, not only for political reasons but most likely economic ones, but maybe he's correct. This CNN animation seems to show the slick shrinking today, and forecast to be even smaller tomorrow..
As the video shows, the slick started small and the Coast Guard was out there downplaying it early on. Obama was clearly being briefed, but sometimes things get out of control and information is wrong. When it grew they responded. There will always be second-guessing.
The criticism here should be more about perception and media coverage. On the former, Obama appeared aloof for a week, only sending subordinates while initially making a big issue out of the mining disaster in West Virgina. There was that big offshore drilling decision to worry about. On the latter, the media is indeed making it a big story but that story isn't so much about Obama or his politics, but about the slick. As it should be.
But we all know that if the oil men were still in the White House the story would be as much about their complicity/incompetence as the spill, with enviros and media hacks holding oil-coated birds while crying into the camera. We might even see someone like Spike Lee preparing a documentary about how a Cheney-led conspiracy including Halliburton probably blew the BOP in an effort to spike pump prices. Evidently the media has entered a world of balance where they no longer find it necessary to openly speculate or inflame such narratives.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Haiti
Not much to say except where to send help. Here's my choice,
donate
Socialism is so much better when it's voluntary and from the heart. I have confidence that America, even in the midst of a horrible recession, will come through with millions in aid. And please, somebody make Pat Robertson go away. He is no reflection of decency, much less Christianity.
donate
Socialism is so much better when it's voluntary and from the heart. I have confidence that America, even in the midst of a horrible recession, will come through with millions in aid. And please, somebody make Pat Robertson go away. He is no reflection of decency, much less Christianity.
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