Hurricane!

Good questions about whether it makes sense to replace FEMA.

beSpacific links to the documents surrounding the call by a Senate Committee to disband FEMA and create a new entitiy to replace it. This is of the same level of political grandstanding as offering each citizen a $100 one-time rebate to offset gas prices that have doubled. What is their timeframe, now that the start of hurricane season is months away? And what would this new “superagency” have that FEMA doesn’t? Check the executive summary…

A skeptical look at Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.

If there is a global warming problem that can be corrected then Al Gore isn’t helping things with this sort of exaggeration done as entertainment. Just his stiff voice-over alone is enough to make people not take it seriously. And some of the assertions are very radical. What the public needs are “the facts.”

Is there any reason that we shouldn't be working on solutions while we work out the facts?

Click through to view the trailer for the upcoming film An Inconvenient Truth.

There’s a film to be released on May 24 in the U.S. called “An Inconvenient Truth” (watch the movie trailer) that is a reality check we need to stop ignoring.

From Norm's profile:

If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > Make combating global warming the centre of all policy: getting us off our dependency on cars, switching to solar and other sustainable energies. (One minor change I'd make is to have Australia be a republic and get the Queen of England off our money.)

Click through for the Wired Magazine CO2 emissions calculator.

I just filled out a form over at Wired that estimates your CO2 emissions based on a number of factors. My total: 27,312 pounds of CO2 each year. Probably more though because our local power plant uses coal.

Some links to articles on warming here that claim that warming stopped in 1998.

Speaking of environmental issues tomorrow is Earthday. The main focus this year is tackling climate change and the whole global warming thing, something that is quite an emotive issue (check out what happened when Nick wrote about some information he found about global warming having stabilised/stopped since 1998 (this was his subsequent response.

While it may be difficult to attribute the percentage of global warming that is due to CO2 emissions, measurements show increases in CO2 concentrations and the physics of heat absorption and CO2 have been understood for over 100 years.

One refutation to Michael Chrichton's well-known talk would be 800 peer-reviewed studies documenting changes in plants and wildlife due to climate change.

On a slightly more serious note. If you've never read Michael Chrichton's refutation of the global warming phenomenon it's here. I find his analysis compelling and I've yet to hear any refutation that didn't begin with some variant of "...but he's just a Bushbot" or "I think he's an asshole" or even "you listen to that guy? he's just a writer."

Records for five generations show that maple syrup tapping in Jeffersonville, Vermont never took place before March ... until the past two years.

From a rant about the $400M retirement package for outgoing Exxon chairman Lee Raymond, some good observations about incentives.

Here is my solution. Oil is a natural resource that should be in control of the people that live in that area. Who are these fuckers to get filthy rich off a natural resource that should be all of ours to share? The majority of Americans overwhelmingly support finding an alternative to oil and with us in control of the industry, there would be no more suppressing of global warming reports, no more big money discouraging law makers to get tough on MPG regulations. It might hurt in the short-term, but it will pay off in the long-term. We aren't afraid to sacrifice, seriously, the majority of Americans realize this. You have to ask yourself, should something that is hurting the world in so many ways be in control of a corporation who, by definition, are looking out for stockholders, and stockholders only? Call it socialism, or whatever the fuck you want, but it sounds like common sense to me.

You don't have to wait for the government to wake up if you want to do something about global warming and climate change. You can click through to this post.

When I used Google search I saw that the Google logo was wearing a solar panel roof. Knowing that the two founders are investors into a solar cell startup, I had the suspicion this could have to do something with that. But when clicking on it another site was revealed: The Earth Day Network starts a 3 year campaign today. They mention a Top 10 list of the things we should do to contribute to slowing the climate change.

Click through for more pictures of the University of Iowa.

It’s ironic that Iowa City was destroyed by a Cyclone, but like always, we’ll bounce back. It’s only about five months until we get a rematch with Cyclones of a different sort, and once again, the University of Iowa will be in the midst of the path of destruction. But this time, we’ll be the ones doing the destroying.

How mobile are FEMA mobile homes in the next hurricane?

I thought that putting hurricane survivors into FEMA trailers to be a crazy idea. I mean when a hurricane hits mobile homes become just that “mobile”. If the winds of hurricanes blow down brick homes, break “hurricane proof” homes, then what will it do to FEMA trailers? Evidently there’s an alternative that cost less and is more sturdy and that’s prefab cottages. Read the article below to learn more about them. Of course the government is set to use the more expensive and less safe alternative, which makes me wonder “Who makes these decisions?”.

The Republican party line on climate change is that the facts aren't in.

Rohrabacher: I caught your commentary last week, and how global warming is a fact and there's no scientific evidence to be against it. I just brought you a little present today, Bill. (It's not a subpoena, is it?) It's just a note that contains the names of 12 pre-eminent scientists who believe man-caused global warming, and also suggests there are 2600 scientists who are pre-eminent in their fields who are skeptical of the global warming theory./p>

Science isn't really about concensus, it's about explaining repeatable measurements.

Click through for the five articles on climate change.

Is it just me or do you guys and gals think that climate issues are about to mainstream? I’d say we’re approaching talking critical mass & tipping point. Here are five articles of evidence that I would like to lay before the jury - you.

Click through for some good graphics on climate change.

Seed Magazine gives us a graphical look at the state of the planet. Mostly related to climate change but, hey! this is what is all about.

An undergraduate from Brown posts about organizing for Climate Change issues.

Friedman says that at many schools, clean energy is a “hobby, not a crusade.” Well, I’m not about to try to start a crusade, because the last few didn’t turn out so great. And I’d prefer to draw for inspiration on historical events like students sitting-in for civil rights. But I’m all in favor of a clean energy movement. And just as Friedman is calling for, we’re building one. Every school where clean energy is just a hobby needs instead a rip-roaring movement of students to call for clean energy on campus, in their communities, from their Governors and from their members of Congress. I can’t put the reasons why better than Friedman did: “today’s students will be profoundly affected by climate change, the coming energy wars and the rising danger of petro-authoritarian states.”

Read the entire article.

If you've got kids, figure out a disaster plan before the hurricane strikes.

The sheer scale of the disaster, the vast number of custody and visitation orders impacted and an indefinitely shut-down court system all make for a volatile, frustrating mix. Post-Wilma South Florida experienced it too, if to a lesser degree.

If you want a story with global climate change as the backdrop, check out 40 Signs of Rain.

As such Forty Signs of Rain reads more like a mainstream novel than SF. The science is there and a key part of the story—we’re dealing with global climate change, after all—but what really moves the story along are the actions and interactions of the main characters.

Lots of blogs picked up the WaPo article on climate change by Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace. Here's one response:

I think I agree with Moore, Nick Kristof of the NY Times and other prominent "liberals" who have come forward in support of nuclear energy. Terrorism be damned -- global climate change is clearly the biggest threat to human species. Whether humans are behind climate change is really a non-issue. Maybe it's a result of industrialization or maybe it's simply a natural cycle. When the frozen tundra at the poles has melted and the coastal low-lying areas of every nation on Earth are underwater, culpability will be kind of a moot point.

An extensive look at the impact of Hurricane Katrina on health care in New Orleans.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, our crisis was acute, our options limited, and our decisions necessarily quick. Now, with the crisis in the chronic phase, options backed by conflicting interest groups abound, resulting in cumbersome decision making and dangerously slow implementation. During the crisis, two principles contributed to survival: initiative for self-rescue and professional teamwork. As we heal our infrastructure, these principles continue to guide us.

Making Global Warming into a political issue is like making a cancer diagnosis into a political issue ... you can do it, but it doesn't make the symptoms go away.

Despite Leaker's (aka Smirk) insistence that global warming hasn't been proved yet, that we have to wait until all the evidence is in, others seem to be moving on without him. Al Gore recently addressed a group of corporate leaders and investors on the topic, and they were willing to listen. Gore stated that we have to start thinking of subjects like global warming and the environment as moral issues, not as political issues. Amen.

From a post by a British politician.

Bill Clinton said in London yesterday (in a speech at the Smith Institute) that while terrorism could kill large numbers of people, it could never wipe out a civilisation, but that global warming could.

Click through for the whole story.

This post says that Hurricane Katrina recovery depended on VoIP services.

In the wake of Katrina, he sites VoIP as a major reason that live communications could be reestablished in an emergency.

From a list of Global Warming Myths, number one.

Myth #1: Scientists Agree the Earth Is Warming. While ground-level temperature measurements suggest the earth has warmed between 0.3 and 0.6 degrees Celsius since 1850, global satellite data, the most reliable of climate measure- ments, show no evidence of warming during the past 18 years. [See Figure I.] Even if the earth's temperature has increased slightly, the increase is well within the natural range of known temperature variation over the last 15,000 years. Indeed, the earth experienced greater warming between the 10th and 15th centuries - a time when vineyards thrived in England and Vikings colonized Greenland and built settlements in Canada.

This is a case where one data set showing no temperature rise does not prove temperatures are not going up. Plenty of data sets do show 1) that temperatures have risen over the past 20 years and 2) that temperatures are well correlated to carbon dioxide levels.

Very good post on a Cyclone workshop.

One of the nice things about a being a scientist is that you can sometimes go to workshops and meetings and actually hear something new now and again. At the well-timed Tropical Cyclones and Climate Workshop at Columbia a week or so ago, I got a chance to sit in and listen to Emanuel, Landsea, Knutson and Bell talking about their recent work, but I also got to hear some new voices (and issues) in the discussion. It was all pretty enlightening even if it didn't end up in complete reconciliation of the different views.

Note the bit on the NOAA.

Some thoughts on global warming from a blogger who heard a speach from Al Gore.

I've known about global warming and CO2 emissions for some time. I used to read Discover magazine religiously, and every other issue had something about global warming. It's a highly debated topic, but only in the economic realm. In the scientific realm, there is simply no debate. It is an accepted truth.

From a thoughtful post on questions of global warming and climate change.

February witnessed the first anniversary of the the Kyoto Protocols. In short, Kyoto is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Signers to Kyoto commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases. Kyoto is intended to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases with an eye towards “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” In short, Kyoto aims as stopping humanity from destroying the planet through our industrialized, mechanized way of living which releases harmful gases into the environment.

A post on the work of Hopeful Haven after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

While most of the nation has been focused on New Orleans, the "Chocolate City," Hopeful Haven has been delivering truckloads of hay, vaccine, and cow cubes every two weeks down into the parishes, and the counties of East Texas, to people who have been desparately working to "stand on their own two feet." I've always been happy to throw any little publicity I can their way. God Bless.

Japan, a leader in reducing carbon dioxide emissions while growing its economy, saw the first fuel cell train tests.

Hydrogen, which is stored in a tank aboard the train, is supplied to the fuel cells, where it reacts with oxygen to produce electricity. Unused electricity and electricity generated during braking is stored in a secondary battery, which is used as an auxiliary power source. In addition to being energy-efficient, hydrogen fuel cells emit no carbon dioxide (a contributor to global warming), only water.

I'd never heard about algae used to reduce carbon emissions.

But did you also know that algae can be used to reduce carbon emissions from mega-factories? And, did you know that the oil from this algae could then be used to run your car? Did you know that this technology is here and is in use? It is and it’s working: