Hurricane!

At around 2am September 16, 2004, Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore just west of Gulf Shores. A 13-18 ft storm surge brought massive destruction to the Alabama and Florida coast. The hardest hit areas included Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Grand Lagoon (FL), Pensacola Beach, Milton, Pensacola Bay and Navarre. I will never, ever forget all of the events surrounding this storm.

Yup. That Carbon Dioxide. That’s the gas that traps the Earth’s heat and causes this Global Warming mess.

Last year, Hurricane Wilma swept through the region and had its way with Club Med. It”s been closed and under renovation since. On November 11, it finally reopens after a $24 million investment. And, you guessed it; children are now allowed and family friendly facilities abound.

"To get eight of these exact same symptoms, same Loggerhead size in at one time, it’s been pretty incredible," said sea turtle specialist Michelle Bauer.The reptiles are lethargic, not eating and not moving even a flipper. The turtles are very sick, but with what?"There are problems with the lungs, we are trying to treat that," Bauer said. "We’re also treating them for parasites, if that might be the problem."Bauer said the sick turtles have washed up in the last five days from Daytona Beach north to Georgia."A normal, healthy Loggerhead wouldn’t just sit here," she said. "They’d be spinning in this tub, trying to bite, be very agitated the fact he’s out of the water."Bauer said it is possible the turtles inhaled something toxic or a bacteria kicked up by Hurricane Florence.

Well, it was a pretty interesting week. Honestly, I don’t know where to start since last week’s e-mail was so short. I don’t know if I ever mentioned that Hurricane Ernesto came through here. There were lots of winds and lots and lots of rain. It really didn’t destroy anything, but it was a cool experience. Well, a lot happened this week. Started out on Tuesday:

lowlights were the wind - the remnants of hurricane ernesto threw the headwinds against me on the other side of lake ontario. as well, my mp3 player just stopped working somewhere near burlington, so i went without music for half the trip - for shame! for shame! i can barely handle being on a subway or streetcar without my music - let alone a solo bike trip around the golden horseshoe.

More than any other energy, fossil fuels (which account for around 75% of the world's electricity and 90% of the world's total energy including cars) are the single greatest contributor to global warming. 85% of the 23 billion tons of CO2 poured into the environment are from fossil fuels.

Ernesto really isn’t making NYC any more inviting to all the fresh fish who are coming in for college. We’re getting so much rain from this storm! When will it all calm down? It definitely looks like Tuesday is going to be a dreary first day of school for New Yorkers.

Before I settled in on the old movie channel, I caught a bit of the coverage of todays NDP convention on CPAC. Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, delivered a speach to the convention delegates about climate change in general and Canada’s failure to commit to the Kyoto Protocol emission targets in specific. I can’t fathom the audacity of the Conservative Party to try and pull that shit on the Canadian public and expect to get away with it. There is no doubt a very strong western base of support for dismantling these international agreements but I just can’t see Upper Canada and Maritime support forthcoming.

Almost a year after Hurricane Katrina damaged every licensed casino facility on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (including one not yet open) and, together with Hurricane Rita, damaged eleven of the nineteen Louisiana casino gaming properties, rebuilding efforts continue.

Judging by this Insurance Journal article, not everybody buys that the Louisiana legislation extending the statute of limitations on Katrina and Rita claims will hold: