The European Union’s climate commissioner says she hopes that President Barack Obama’s renewed attention to global warming after the election will translate into greater U.S. involvement in U.N. climate talks.
EU climate head wants Obama to pull his weight in global warming talks – The Washington Post
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlXK8o70Se0]
December 30, 2007
Experts say it’s only a matter of time before a major hurricane strikes New York City. When it comes, you may want to have your evacuation plan nearby. If not, meet the fishes.
By Aaron Naparstek
Imagine the following: It’s a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Sunny, cloudless, 80 degrees. Backyard barbecues are fired up all over the metropolitan area, and the beaches of New York City, New Jersey and southern Long Island are jam-packed with bathers. The only sign that something unusual is happening is the relatively big waves rolling up on Coney Island. It’s a surfer’s paradise. Mike Lee isn’t enjoying the long weekend. For the last two weeks, Lee, the Director of Watch Command at New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, has been observing a series of weather systems form off the western coast of Africa, organize themselves into the familiar swirling pattern of tropical storms, and line up like airplanes coming in for a landing on the Caribbean. One of those storms, a category-4 monster hurricane with sustained winds of 140 m.p.h., is violently churning the ocean 350 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia.
A hurricane like this one can usually be counted on to curve eastward and die a harmless death over the Atlantic. But with a large area of high pressure hovering just off the east coast, the computer models at the National Hurricane Center in Miami are largely in agreement: This one is heading north, tracking a direct hit on New Jersey somewhere north of Atlantic City. Like the legendary “Long Island Express” of 1938, the fastest-moving hurricane ever recorded, it’s moving quickly.
In 1821, stunned colonial New Yorkers recorded sea levels rising as fast as 13 feet in a single hour at the Battery. The East River and Hudson Rivers merged over Lower Manhattan all the way to Canal Street. According to Coch, the fact that the 1821 storm struck at low tide “is the only thing that saved the city.”
In the event of a direct hit by a category-3 hurricane, surge maps show that the Holland and Battery Tunnels will be completely filled with sea water, with many subway and railroad tunnels severely flooded as well. The runways of LaGuardia and JFK airports will get flooded by 18.1 and 31.2 feet of water, respectively.
By contrast, Sandy struck at a full moon high tide. The 1821 storm surge would have been at least five feet higher than Sandy – had the tide conditions been the same.
We will lead on climate change
We must reduce the energy consumption that contributes to climate change — which means, for starters, upgrading our building codes.
Cuomo also made this brilliant observation
Extreme weather is the new normal. In the past two years, we have had two storms, each with the odds of a 100-year occurrence.
The odds of him saying anything intelligent about the climate are about one out one hundred. New York has had dozens of hurricanes over the last two hundred years. Cuomo has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
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List of New York hurricanes – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jason Samenow demonstrates how not to think like a scientist. Bottom line is that he wants to believe something, and has no evidence to back up any of his claims.
1) Sandy should not be “blamed” on climate change. Climate change does not cause storms and did not cause Superstorm Sandy. Storms form when certain weather ingredients come together. The historic record shows violent storms, some even more severe than Sandy, have struck the Northeast repeatedly..
2) While climate change did not cause Sandy, it may have been a performance enhancer like a steroid, injecting it with somewhat more energy and power.
Past storms were more powerful than Sandy before “climate change” Therefore Sandy was made more powerful by climate change. Brilliant thinking.
3) Sea level rise from manmade climate change increased the water level along the Northeast coast 6 to 8 inches and, as a result, somewhat worsened the coastal flooding from Sandy.
Sea level has been rising for 20,000 years, and tide gauges show no acceleration over the last century. How could this possibly be man made? He is making a statement of fact which has zero evidence to back it up.
4) There is speculation that decreased Arctic sea ice from manmade climate change altered atmospheric steering currents, strengthening the weather system in the North Atlantic that helped to push Sandy ashore in the Northeast. This idea is controversial.
5) Climate change is likely to slowly increase the intensity of hurricanes in the future, but trends in storm frequency are less certain and the number of storms may actually decrease. Sea levels will continue to rise adding to the coastal flood risk.
Nothing but mindless speculation based on preconceived notions. h/t to Marc Morano
Obama has promised to prevent future Sandy events, by powering Long Island with useless bankrupt, non-existent technology.
An Obama promise is as good as gold, and Long Islanders are as safe as US ambassadors overseas.
Al Gore, who was honored with the same prize as Yasser Arafat, says that the 5,000 year old Arab-Israeli conflict is caused by Americans not paying enough taxes.
During the 1960s, there were no weather disasters reported on cable news. That number has increased dramatically – providing incontrovertible proof that the climate is getting worse.
New Yorkers have had the opportunity to experience the green nirvana of an extended Earth Hour, well below normal temperatures, and a very low carbon footprint. But for some reason they aren’t happy about living in the dark ages.
NEW YORK — Even as the lights came on for many who lost power in New York and New Jersey during the superstorm and a later nor’easter, hundreds of residents protested Saturday outside a Long Island utility, frustrated by its slow response to outages.
Power Outages: New Jersey, New York Slowly See Lights Back On After Hurricane Sandy
It is unfortunate that Bill McKibben didn’t get to share their joy, because it would have stopped him from tweeting about him wanting to cut off the world’s energy supply.
Millions dead from floods, tornadoes and drought!
Enough talk already- government must take action to restore the climate to the pristine state it was in eighty years ago.
http://news.google.com/newspapers
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http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55393927?
15 Aug 1930 – THE DROUGHT IN U.S.A. CRITICAL CONDITIONS CONTIN…
What Heidi means by this is that October temperatures have been flat for the past fourteen years, and that there is no evidence of recent global warming.
