Katrina
Storm News Tracker
Katrina Disaster May Stir US Awareness on Climate Change: Green Groups
We can only hope so unfortunately President Bush doesn't really believe in Global Warming.
On June 11, 2001, he stated from the White House, "Yet, the Academy's report tells us that we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming. We do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it."
Nor does Pat Robertson, the Man whom God talks too. His Science News section on the Christian Broadcasting Network posts that Global Warming is Junk Science, tell that to Rita and Katrina.
Environmentalists are not only working to keep America from developing new sources of oil, they are also blaming this unusually active hurricane season on global warming. They say humans have caused climate changes leading to severe weather that is threatening the planet. But is there any truth behind their claims, or are they merely based on junk science? "Few people dispute that the Earth has warmed. But what is disputed is why it is warming, whether man is responsible, and if we should even care."
Gee, Pat and friends I think you should start 'caring'. Cause the science shows that
Global Warming Making Hurricanes Stronger
Climatologist Peter Webster provided these facts: "The total number of storms that are reaching Category 4 and 5, and the number of days that they are staying at Category 4 and 5 is increasing substantially."Thirty-five years ago, major hurricanes made up about one-sixth of all tropical storms. In recent years, that percentage has risen to one-third. During that same time, water surface temperatures around the world have also grown warmer. The warmer water evaporates at a quicker rate, and once it rises into the atmosphere, the condensation releases energy that forms the storm.
Gerald Meeh, a lead scientist on the definitive Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change, observes that “many people don’t realise that we are committed right now to a significant amount of global warming and sea level rise because of the greenhouse gases we have already put into the atmosphere”. The main source of carbon dioxide is the burning of fossils such as coal, oil and gas in power stations and in internal combustion engines. The country that is responsible for the largest amount of carbon dioxide emissions is America. It causes a quarter of all global emissions and yet it refuses to sign the Kyoto Agreement.
And what is ironic in a cosmic sort of way is that both these hurricanes are hitting America's main source of oil extraction and refining. The Gulf region.And Georgie Porgie refused to sign Kyoto cause it would have an impact on Americas gas and oil companies. Almost like mother nature planned to give George II a slap up the side of the head. Maybe he will declare her a terrorist now. Cause she is crippling America worse than anything Bin Laden could do.
Hurricane Rita vs. oil rigs ... here we go again
Oil rigs in the path of Hurricane Rita (map: RigZone.com)
We now depend upon the Gulf of Mexico for much of our domestic production of oil. Texas has 26 oil refineries, which produce nearly a quarter of all the gasoline used in the United States. But even if OPEC were to pour millions of barrels of extra crude into the United States to alleviate the impact of the hurricanes, we would still have a hard time getting more gasoline to the gas pumps.
Rita, More Intense Than Katrina, Bears Down on Texas (Update2)
Category 5 Storms
Hurricane center records show that three Category 5 storms have hit the U.S.: an unnamed one that swept the Florida Keys in 1935; Hurricane Camille, which slammed Mississippi in 1969; and Andrew, which devastated southern Florida in 1992. Hurricane Gilbert in 1992 and the 1935 storm were more intense in terms of pressure, the center said on its Web site. The lower the atmospheric pressure in the center, the stronger the hurricane, with a drop in pressure preceding an increase in wind speed, Roberts said. Gilbert's pressure was as low as 888 millibars (26.2 inches), and the 1935 hurricane was measured at 892 millibars. Rita's latest pressure was 897 millibars, compared with 923 millibars for Katrina when it made landfall. Rita has added to disruptions to oil supply caused by Katrina in the Gulf, home to 44 percent of U.S. refining capacity and 30 percent of U.S. oil production. The threat Rita poses to rigs, refineries and platforms in the Gulf pushed the price of crude oil and gasoline higher. Crude oil for November delivery rose as much as 98 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $67.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. About 52 percent of 134 rigs and 57 percent of 819 manned platforms in the Gulf were evacuated, the Minerals Management Service said on its Web site.
And lets not forget that while Amerika navel gazes about its weather, around the world more nasty storms have also been just as destructive.
Tropical Storm Saola Approaches Iwo Jima as It Heads for Japan
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Saola, which is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon today, is approaching Iwo Jima on a path that will take it to southern Japan, where 20 people died when Typhoon Nabi passed through earlier this month.
Typhoon Nabi earlier this month caused landslides and floods after battering southwest Japan with rain and wind as high as 162 kilometers per hour. At least 20 people died and seven were missing, Kyodo News said, citing authorities.
Typhoon Mawar last month left one person dead in Japan, caused flight cancellations, power outages and halted sea shipments of oil products as it swept across Tokyo and areas around the capital.
A record 10 typhoons and tropical storms hit Japan last year, leaving scores dead and causing billions of dollars of damage. Typhoon Tokage, the strongest in more than a decade, left at least 61 people dead in October.
HAIKOU, Sept. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Rescue operation is continuing in South China Sea to search for a fishing boat with a nine-member crew, which missed in Typhoon Vicente last Saturday.
The Marine and Fishery Bureau of Hainan Province, in southernmost China, said that the fishing boat missed in the tropical storm last Saturday, when it was fishing together with another seven fishing vessels some 45 nautical miles from the coast. The other seven vessels managed to return to Sanya Port.
All crew members, with age ranging from 32 to 58, are residents of Maihua Township in east China's Fujian Province. Enditem
Typhoon Labuyo to hit Cagayan, Phillipines
Typhoon Labuyo has accelerated as it heads north toward Cagayan province, weather bureau PAGASA reported Wednesday.
As of 4 a.m., satellite and surface data tracked the eye of the storm at 180 km east southeast of Tuguegarao, Cagayan with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near the center. PAGASA forecasts Labuyo would be nearer Aparri on Thursday morning and heading toward Basco, Batanes the following day.
Public Storm Warning Signal No. 1 is still hoisted over the provinces of Aurora, Quirino, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Benguet, Mt. Province, Kalinga Apayao, Cagayan, Calayan Group of Islands, Batanes Group of Islands, Abra, and the Ilocos provinces.
PAGASA said residents in low-lying and coastal areas and those residing near mountain slopes of the provinces with warning signal are alerted against possible flash floods and landslides.
The storm's wake left two people dead in Albay province on Tuesday while disrupting ferry traffic in the ports of Virac, Catanduanes and Matnog in Sorgoson.
Scores missing after storms in Bay of Bengal
September 21 2005 at 08:17AM | |
At least 27 people were killed in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh, which bore the brunt of the storms on Monday and Tuesday, while six people died in neighbouring Orissa state, they said.
The torrent submerged roads and rail tracks as buffeting winds flattened trees and power poles, witnesses said. An official of the state disaster management cell said the blinding rains had left 50 000 people displaced or homeless in Andhra Pradesh.
 Relatives of the dead in Andhra Pradesh will get compensation |
3 500 fishermen missing
21/09/2005 13:55 - (SA)
Dhaka - Nearly 3 500 fishermen were missing in the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday as over 200 fishing trawlers capsized in turbulent waves after setting sail from the southern Bangladesh coast three days ago, officials said.
Fisheries ministry officials said the untraced fishermen were on board the trawlers which were badly battered by tropical gales stirring high waves in the Bay which have flooded at least seven coastal districts.
The June-August summer season was the tenth warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., while precipitation was above average. Global temperatures were second highest on record for the boreal summer, which runs from June 1 through August 31. Twelve named tropical systems formed in the Atlantic by the end of August, including Hurricane Katrina, which was among the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S., according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
So Climate Change and global warming and its affects/effects are Junk Science hmmmmm, I think not.
Climatologist Pat Michaels of the CATO Institute stated, “Climate changes - yes, humans have something to do with this change, but climate has changed in the past without human beings having anything to do with it. There was an Ice Age not very long ago -- 5,000 feet of ice over Chicago, and look, here we are, thriving on a planet with an ever-changing climate.”
And while the Cato Institute, along with Pat Robertson, George Bush, the Conservative Party of Canada and other like minded morons, likes to claim that human influence has NOT had a major impact on global climate and weather well the facts say otherwise.
"According to McNeills (rough) calculations, humans in the twentieth century used TEN TIMES more energy than their forebears over the entire thousand years preceding 1900." Paul Kennedy, Forward to ' something new under the sun, an Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century" by J.R. McNeill. W.W. Norton Books 2000.
Ottawa to host 'climate change' summit
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could raise global average temperatures by up to 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. They will also affect weather patterns, water resources, ecosystems and extreme climate events.
Scientists have already detected many early signs of global warming, including the shrinking of mountain glaciers and Arctic sea-ice, longer summer growing seasons, changes in the arrival and departure dates of migratory birds and the spread of many insects and plants towards the poles