Best storm chasing footage I have seen.
Month: May 2016
James Hansen on Greenland Ice and Canada’s Fires
Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker:
The town of Fort McMurray, some four hundred miles north of Calgary, in Canada, grew up very quickly on both sides of the Athabasca River. During the nineteen-seventies, the population of the town tripled, and since then it has nearly tripled again. All this growth has been fuelled by a single activity: extracting oil from a Florida-sized formation known as the tar sands. When the price of oil was high, there was so much currency coursing through Fort McMurray’s check-cashing joints that the town was dubbed “Fort McMoney.”
Now Fort McMurray is burning. A forest fire that began to the southwest of the town on Sunday has forced the entire population—almost ninety thousand people—to evacuate. On Wednesday, Alberta’s provincial government declared a state of emergency. By yesterday, more than fifteen hundred buildings had been destroyed and the blaze had spread through an area covering more than three hundred square miles. It was burning so hot that that it was easily able to jump major rivers. One Canadian official described the fire as “catastrophic.” Another called it a “multi-headed monster.”
Continue reading “James Hansen on Greenland Ice and Canada’s Fires”
20 Years Ago: “Twister” Released
Weather geek Touchstone.
Much about tornadoes remains a mystery, especially the details about what is
happening inside the tornado at the surface of the Earth. Researchers have been
trying to collect weather data on the ground from inside a tornado since the early
1970’s. Their mission has always been to discover new clues that will help increase
tornado warning times and reduce false alarms, saving lives.
Dr. Al Bedard and Carl Ramzy from the NOAA Environmental Research
Laboratory (former parent organization of the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory) created the first device designed to take weather measurements in the
actual path of the tornado. The TOtable Tornado Observatory (TOTO), named
after Dorothy’s little dog from the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” was a 55 gallon barrel outfitted with anemometers, pressure sensors, and humidity sensors, along with devices to record the data. In theory, a team would roll TOTO out of the back of the pickup in the path of a tornado, switch on the instruments, and get out of the way. Several groups,
including those led by Dr. Howie Bluestein from the University of Oklahoma and
later by NSSL, tried to deploy TOTO over the years, but never scored a direct hit.
The closest TOTO ever came to success was in 1984 when it was sideswiped and
knocked over by the edge of a weak tornado. TOTO was retired in 1987.
New Video: Mark Jacobson on a Renewable World
Mark Jacobson is one of the best informed and most credible advocates for a transition to a fully renewable economy.
Jim Byrne and I interviewed Jacobson in December of 2015, in San Francisco. This is part one.
The Weekend Wonk: Probing the Greenland Caves
Northeast Greenland Caves Project:
During the summer of 2015, a highly-motivated 5-person team visited the Arctic Circle to explore, survey, photograph, and sample caves of Northeast Greenland for the purpose of climate-change research. This much-needed record of past climate change will be the first of its type from caves of Greenland, and will contribute significantly to our understanding of long-term climate change in Greenland and the Arctic by covering a time period that is out-of-range of the Greenland ice cores.
The Madhouse Effect
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy
, by climate scientist Michael Mann and cartoonist Tom Toles is now available for pre-order. I’ve not gotten my review copy of it yet, but it looks fantastic.
From the publisher:
The award winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have fought at the frontlines of climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of millions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars.
Through satire, “The Madhouse Effect” portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that man-made activity has changed our climate. Toles’s cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann’s expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two commonsense crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books–and may even convert a few of the faithful to the right side of science.
Music Break: Alt-J – Left Hand Free
Dark edged ditty made its way onto the soundtrack for Captain America Civil War.
Bill Ruddiman on the Anthropocene
Everyone (except the terminally Trump) believes that humans have had the major role in changing climate in the last century.
But what about the last 8 thousand years? Humans have had impacts ever since they started clearing forests and growing food…
Darby O’Palin: Climate Change Denier Denies Climate Change
Not The Onion:
Independent Kerry TD Danny Healy Rae has defended his comments that climate change does not exist.
Speaking during a debate on the issue in the Dail last night, the Kerry TD said he does not believe in Climate Change and that “God above is in charge of the weather and we can’t do anything about it.”
He insisted the world’s climate is nothing to do with mankind, or combustible engines.
However, a leading Climatologist, Professor John Sweeney from NUI Maynooth has said his views are in direct contrast with 97% of global scientific opinion.
But, speaking this afternoon, Deputy Healy-Rae had this response: “I’m basing my argument on facts.
“That is going back historically in this country and if we could just go back to the 1970’s we were told by scientists that our buildings were going to be washed away by acid rain even in this country.
“It hasn’t happened, so we can’t believe everything that the scientists are saying either.”
Below, music break: WTF scene from “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”:
Continue reading “Darby O’Palin: Climate Change Denier Denies Climate Change”
Alberta Fire Update
Officials said all efforts have failed to suppress the large inferno that invaded Alberta’s Fort McMurray, even with more than 250 firefighters working 24 hours to fight the blaze. A provincial state of emergency was declared by the Alberta government Wednesday evening as the raging fire showed no signs of weakening.
“This is a nasty, dirty fire,” Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen told the AP. “There are certainly areas of the city that have not been burned, but this fire will look for them and it will find them and it will want to take them.”
Desperate situation in Lac La Biche as rapidly-spreading wildfire forces other evac centres to close #ymmfire #ymm https://t.co/UcDN4TwdAx
— Global Edmonton (@GlobalEdmonton) May 5, 2016
Below: Climate change context for Fire: Continue reading “Alberta Fire Update”