Pictures of the garden and turkey babies from last year, when things were a bit more under control. And a solitary but not isolated example of dieback. Then there is the sensational accident!
I don't need to add anything to this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/04/byers-himalaya-changing-landscapes
And this is my comment to this:
http://climateprogress.org/2009/06/04/marc-moranos-banner-headline-did-global-warming-help-bring-down-air-france-flight-447/#comments
Whether Moron was trying to be satirical or not, I do not see why our fearless leader Dr. Romm derides the link as tenuous. It seems like a good possibility to me, although not yet proven. Actually, it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline, “Air France jet disappears in Storm” or whatever, never mind when I saw what they say now, “Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The incredibly moist air rushed up to the plane’s high altitude, where it quickly froze where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence…the Airbus A330 disintegrated, either in the air or when it slammed into the ocean” from Yahoo News.
DISINTEGRATED IN THE AIR
I never heard of such a thing, did you?
This reticence reminds me of the cautious disclaimers by every scientist that Katrina could not be linked to climate change at the time, whereas recently there have been several reports that describe studies showing that Katrina was indeed a result of climate change, warmer oceans specifically.
I would not be surprised if we look back on this terrible “accident” as the harbinger of things to come, along with shipwrecks from giant waves and high winds, and of course, the pounding of the coasts.
Don’t the models predict such violent weather? Then why should we be so hesitant to make the link between violent chaotic weather and human disasters? Do we believe in the validity of the models or not?
My feeling is that, if the caliber of reporting about climate induced disasters globally is anywhere near as mendacious as the reporting of what is happening to the ecosystem where I live, then there is so much being swept under the rug that we are in deep, deep kaka.
Gail,
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that you spent most of your adult life in the warm phase of the PDO. I’m probably a little older than you and remember those colder times in the seventies. This article from NASA is interesting:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ news/ news.cfm?release=2008-066
“The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a long-term fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean that waxes and wanes between cool and warm phases approximately every five to 20 years.”
“During most of the 1980s and 1990s, the Pacific was locked in the oscillation’s warm phase, during which these warm and cool regions are reversed.”
Here is another PDO site:
http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo/
Good things can happen to you too, Gail.
Thanks,
Mike Bryant
Thank you for your comment Mike although I'm not sure what you are getting at! Actually I was born in 1954 and well remember fantastic blizzards where everything (especially schools!) shut down for weeks at a time.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't despair. Many, many good things have happened to me. In fact, I realize that we are living at the absolute pinnacle of human civilization, if by that you mean material wealth and creature comfort.
It wouldn't be such a bad thing to ratchet our levels of consumption back to a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle. The problem is, I don't think it's going to occur in a pleasant way. I hope I'm wrong!