Meteorologist Alexandra Steele explains what a derecho is, and how this storm created havoc across the country.
Month: July 2012
Music Break: Lee Michaels, Do You Know What I Mean? That is, I mean, “Duya no wutta meen?”
Was getting ready to post this, when I heard it come across the radio.
Always listen to media flashes.
Heat wave is breaking – perfect excuse to crack a beer and listen to the bonus track below.
North Carolina Legislature Votes to Put Physics on Hold
RALEIGH, N.C., July 3 (Reuters) – Lawmakers in North Carolina, which has a long Atlantic Ocean coastline and vast areas of low-lying land, voted on Tuesday to ignore studies predicting a rapid rise in sea level due to climate change and postpone planning for the consequences.
Opponents of the measure said it was a case of legislators “putting our heads in the sand” to avoid acknowledging the possible effects of global warming.
Backed by real estate developers, the Republican-led General Assembly passed a law requiring that projected rates of sea level rise be calculated on historical trends and not include accelerated rates of increase.
North Carolina is among the state’s most vulnerable to sea level rise with its long coastline and thousands of square miles of low-lying land. A 2012 study by the U.S. Geological Survey says sea levels along the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to Massachusetts are rising three to four times faster than the global average. Global sea level rise has been projected to rise two to three feet (61 to 91 centimetres) by the end of the 21st century, but in hot spots, the increase may be greater.
A panel of scientists that advises North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission, a state policy panel, said coastal communities should plan for about 39 inches (99 cm) of sea level rise by 2100 based on seven scientific studies.
That drew a backlash from a coastal economic development group called NC-20 that called it fake science. The group said making development take into account 39 inches of sea level rise could undermine the coastal economy, raise insurance costs and turn thousands of square miles of coastal property into flood plains that could not be developed.
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“This bill is basically like saying to your doctor, ‘Don’t do any tests on me, and if you do any tests and find something wrong, don’t tell me for four years,'” state Representative Deborah Ross, a Democrat, said. “By putting our heads in the sand literally, we are not helping property owners. We are hurting them. We are not giving them information they might need to protect their property. Ignorance is not bliss. It’s dangerous.”
The debate comes as the U.S. Geological Survey recently projected that rates are increasing up to four times faster between Cape Hatteras north to Boston.
Rep. Pat McElraft, a Republican real estate agent from Emerald Isle who pushed the bill, said the commission would now “use some real science” to evaluate the coast, saying some scientists have debunked global warming.
“You can believe whatever you want about global warming, but when you go to make planning policies here for our residents and protecting their property values and insurance rates … it’s a very serious thing to us on the coast,” she said.
Democratic lawmakers such as Raleigh’s Deborah Ross countered the argument, saying “ignorance is not bliss, it’s dangerous.”
“By putting our heads in the sand, literally, for four years,” she said. “We are not helping property owners. We are hurting them because we are not giving them information they may need to protect their property.”
Republican John Blust of Greensboro appeared indignant about being lectured on climate change, saying “I don’t know what the planet is going to be like in 100 years.”
“If you all don’t agree with our point of view, somehow you’re bad, somehow you’re ignorant … there is a constant almost intimidation factor going on,” he said.
From the Ashes, Acknowledging Climate Change
Satellite View of Super Derecho
NSIDC Sea Ice Update: Largest June Ice Loss in Satellite Record
National Snow and Ice Data Center:
Arctic sea ice extent declined quickly in June, setting record daily lows for a brief period in the middle of the month. Strong ice loss in the Kara, Bering, and Beaufort seas, and Hudson and Baffin bays, led the overall retreat. Northern Hemisphere snow extent was unusually low in May and June, continuing a pattern of rapid spring snow melt seen in the past six years.
Overview of conditions
Arctic sea ice extent for June 2012 averaged 10.97 million square kilometers (4.24 million square miles). This was 1.18 million square kilometers (456,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average extent. The last three Junes (2010-2012) are the three lowest in the satellite record. June 2012 ice extent was 140,000 square kilometers (54,000 square miles) above the 2010 record low. Ice losses were notable in the Kara Sea, and in the Beaufort Sea, where a large polynya has formed. Retreat of ice in the Hudson and Baffin bays also contributed to the low June 2012 extent. The only area of the Arctic where sea ice extent is currently above average is along the eastern Greenland coast.The ice extent recorded for 30 June 2012 of 9.59 million square kilometers (3.70 million square miles) would not normally be expected until July 21, based on 1979-2000 averages. This puts extent decline three weeks ahead of schedule.
Continue reading “NSIDC Sea Ice Update: Largest June Ice Loss in Satellite Record”
West Virginia Call for Help
More from my Appalachia correspondent:
***URGENT CALL FOR HELP***
Communities in Fayette County, WV, have asked for help during the state of emergency declared during the extended power outage from last week’s storms. Fayette is still 90% without electricity, food, and water. The national guard has been dispatched, but has not reached many of these communities from what we are hearing.
United Campus Ministry in Athens, Ohio, has volunteered central space to drop off nonperishable food items, bottled water, or other supplies today. Donations can be put boxes or bags marked WV in the UCM lounge (to the right of the front door from now until 7:00pm tonight.) for pick up this evening (Thursday) and delivery via Southern Appalachia Labor School on Friday.
None of this necessary, of course, in a renewable smart grid economy.
The Most Sensible Tax?
We have a new so-called group of “conservatives” here in the US that Ike Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and even Ronald Reagan would not be able to recognize. There is among them, apparently, the belief that roads, harbors, airports, militaries, police and fire protection, hospitals, and schools were all created by God on the sixth day, and require no ongoing input from citizens who derive benefits from them.
For those who actually understand how the world works, its a useful exercise to occasionally revisit how best to tax ourselves so as to keep this enterprise of civilized democracy running. One great idea is to tax, and thereby discourage, activities that will destroy the life support systems without which no civilization can survive. Some of our states and provinces, the “laboratories of democracy”, have been working on various versions of the idea, and showing the way.
ON Sunday, the best climate policy in the world got even better: British Columbia’s carbon tax — a tax on the carbon content of all fossil fuels burned in the province — increased from $25 to $30 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, making it more expensive to pollute.
This was good news not only for the environment but for nearly everyone who pays taxes in British Columbia, because the carbon tax is used to reduce taxes for individuals and businesses. Thanks to this tax swap, British Columbia has lowered its corporate income tax rate to 10 percent from 12 percent, a rate that is among the lowest in the Group of 8 wealthy nations. Personal income taxes for people earning less than $119,000 per year are now the lowest in Canada, and there are targeted rebates for low-income and rural households.
The only bad news is that this is the last increase scheduled in British Columbia. In our view, the reason is simple: the province is waiting for the rest of North America to catch up so that its tax system will not become unbalanced or put energy-intensive industries at a competitive disadvantage.
The United States should jump at the chance to adopt a similar revenue-neutral tax swap. It’s an opportunity to reduce existing taxes, clean up the environment and increase personal freedom and energy security.
Let’s start with the economics. Substituting a carbon tax for some of our current taxes — on payroll, on investment, on businesses and on workers — is a no-brainer. Why tax good things when you can tax bad things, like emissions? The idea has support from economists across the political spectrum, from Arthur B. Laffer and N. Gregory Mankiw on the right to Peter Orszag and Joseph E. Stiglitz on the left. That’s because economists know that a carbon tax swap can reduce the economic drag created by our current tax system and increase long-run growth by nudging the economy away from consumption and borrowing and toward saving and investment.
Solar Power in Rural India
What this shows (yet again) is a couple things.
a) Third world countries are going to be a huge market for the solar industry. Like the adoption of cell phones throughout the developing world, photovoltaic solar development will proceed by “leapfrogging” steps that took industrialized countries decades to achieve, i.e., the buildout of complex and expensive phone systems, or in this case, electrical grids.
b) In doing this, people in India and Africa will demonstrate how to build an electricity supply that is not as vulnerable as the highly centralized and interdependent systems that is currently causing so much difficulty in the mid-atlantic states, following last week’s super-Derecho event.
In the middle of the dense woodland near Sullia, a small town in southern India, there is one form of lighting for the poor and another for the rich: for the former, lamps burning kerosene, which has to be fetched from a source several hours away on foot, and is bad for the lungs; for the latter, electricity distributed to comfortable houses, generally occupied by rubber plantation managers. “Thanks to electricity their days last longer,” says Renuka. She lives with her husband and mother-in-law in a small, hillside house and often walks past the rich rubber plantations.
A few months ago engineers from the Solar Electric Light Company, a Bangalore-based energy firm, appeared with solar panels, which they then presented to the villagers. “They explained that electricity could come directly from the sun without going via the government,” Renuka recalls.
The family paid about $125 for a solar panel that powers two light bulbs and a socket. “It’s not as good as the rich people’s electricity, but at least my husband no longer has to travel kilometres to recharge his mobile phone and I will be able to make more cigarettes in the evening,” says a delighted Renuka.
Thanks to solar power Selco has brought electricity to 135,000 households in Karnataka state. The government claims to have electrified 98% of the state, but in practice the power lines sidestep some houses while in others the inhabitants lack the $300 needed to pay for a few metres of cable, not to mention the associated bribes.
