Photos from Climate Impacts Day
On Saturday, May 5, the activist group 350.org, founded by Bill McKibben, launched a new effort to "connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather." They declared May 5 Climate Impacts Day, and coordinated an impressive global effort of nearly 1,000 events in 100 countries to draw attention to the links between climate change and extreme weather. Their new climatedots.org website aims to get people involved to "protest, educate, document and volunteer along with thousands of people around the world to support the communities on the front lines of the climate crisis." Below are photos from some of the many events on Climate Impacts Day as archived on the climatedots.org website. It is remarkable to view the slide show on their web site and see the degree of global participation this event had; 350.org has created a dedicated and creative global climate movement that will be a major force to reckon with in the coming years.
Figure 1. Volunteers in the city of Salvador, Brazil, have connected the dots have and drawn people's attention to sea level rise and what it impacts in our life.
Figure 2. Madaba, Jordan. "Drops (of water) are dots of hope". A beautiful message from King's Academy in drought-prone Jordan.
Figure 3. Activists hold a banner in front of a damaged coral reef in the vulnerable Marshall Islands. Rising temperatures and increased CO2 uptake are raising the acidity of the ocean, which bleaches and ultimately kills fragile coral reefs.
Figure 4. One thousand students in Bekaa, Lebanon make their dots into the wheels of a giant bicycle to raise awareness about the threat of air pollution, and to advocate for bike lanes.
Figure 5. In 2009, at 17,785 feet in Bolivia's Cordillera Oriental was the Chacaltaya Glacier. Before its unexpected melting, it was home to Bolivia's only ski resort and the first tow-rope ever to be built in South America. Today all that remains is a rocky mountain-top that only receives seasonal snowfall. Photo by Lauren Farnsworth.
Figure 6. Ausable Valley, NY, USA: Young people in New York understand the first-hand impacts of climate change. Hurricane Irene, the third five-hundred-year climate event in the last twelve months, devastated communities in the region and pummeled the beachfront with debris.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Japan's east cost gets hit on a regular basis with strong winds and hurricanes and in the north by extremely heavy snow and winds. All of Japan shakes on a regular basis. No matter what criteria one uses, their buildings are built to withstand some forces.
After the 95 Kobe Earthquake I recall reading a lot of follow up studies that noted how many of the older buildings were top heavy, with the roofs pancaking down during an earthquake. Lots of recommendation and changes came out of that to retrofit frames to hold up in swaying/jiggling conditions. But for winds it seems that these are heavy and sturdily anchored roofs. A quality (along with anchoring mechanisms) that could prevent them from being pried up and lifted off by the same sort of winds that blow standard American roofs off? (Conjecture here. I have no idea really.)
Sorry, you've been taken in by a myth. (It happens in the best of families.)
Fact: A few scientists published papers suggesting that we might be on our way to a new ice age. Many more papers were published which made exactly the opposite predictions.
The papers/thinking predicting an upcoming ice age were shown to be flawed and that thinking died a natural death.
Context: Making incorrect predictions happens.
A good rule of thumb is to believe no new finding.
Wait until at least a couple other papers confirm the findings and the greater body of scientists have had a chance to mull over the issue. Scientists are people and people do make mistakes. (Remember the recent particles traveling faster than the speed of light?)
Important point: When it comes to climate change and the role of greenhouse gases we're into the territory of thousands of supporting papers and extreme (~97%) agreement among climate scientists.
It's no longer a question of whether mankind has caused climate change by burning fossil fuels. That's settled science. The remaining questions are how bad will it get and how quickly.
Hey Levi, what are your preliminary thoughts of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season?
URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 257
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1250 PM CDT SUN MAY 6 2012
THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF
SOUTHERN ALABAMA
FLORIDA PANHANDLE
SOUTHWEST GEORGIA
EFFECTIVE THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 1250 PM UNTIL
800 PM CDT.
HAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70
MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.
THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 40
STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 55 MILES WEST
SOUTHWEST OF EVERGREEN ALABAMA TO 30 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF
ALBANY GEORGIA. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE
ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU7).
REMEMBER...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE
FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY
DO PRODUCE TORNADOES.
OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 255...WW 256...
DISCUSSION...TSTMS ARE ORGANIZING THIS AFTERNOON IN AN ARC FROM
W-CNTRL AL TO SWRN GA WITH ACTIVITY FOCUSED ALONG A SWD-MOVING COLD
POOL. AMBIENT AIR MASS HAS BECOME MODERATELY UNSTABLE OWING TO THE
PRESENCE OF A MOIST BOUNDARY LAYER AND SEASONABLY COOL MIDLEVEL
TEMPERATURES. WHILE VERTICAL SHEAR WILL REMAIN WEAK...THE CHARACTER
OF THE THERMODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT WILL FOSTER HAIL PRODUCTION AND
DAMAGING WINDS WITH THE MOST INTENSE STORMS.
AVIATION...A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT
TO 1.5 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60
KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM
MOTION VECTOR 36020.
...MEAD
That cat of yours, keeps distracting me. lol
Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles. In contrast to the global cooling conjecture, the current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled, but undergone global warming throughout the twentieth century.[1]
In the 1970s, there was increasing awareness that estimates of global temperatures showed cooling since 1945. Of those scientific papers considering climate trends over the 21st century, only 10% inclined towards future cooling, while most papers predicted future warming.[2] The general public had little awareness of carbon dioxide's effects on climate, but Science News in May 1959 forecast a 25% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the 150 years from 1850 to 2000, with a consequent warming trend.[3] The actual increase in this period was 29%. Paul R. Ehrlich mentioned climate change from greenhouse gases in 1968.[4] By the time the idea of global cooling reached the public press in the mid-1970s temperatures had stopped falling, and there was concern in the climatological community about carbon dioxide's warming effects.[5] In response to such reports, the World Meteorological Organization issued a warning in June 1976 that a very significant warming of global climate was probable.[6]
i sure hope i get it linked right.
Link
What looks bad? I forgot what I posted.
Hike!
Huh gro? Speak contemporary english!!
Largely unchanged from my outlook in March, though some things always change as the season approaches. For example, we are losing a lot of the anomalous ocean heat content we had in the Gulf of Mexico and southwest Atlantic.
However, my idea remains the same for probably an early-ish start, but an inactive season overall compared to the post-1995 average with 10-12 named storms.
two interesting features this afternoon
That's a trough
Yeah, I've noticed...why is that?
When you wrote 13-7-4 I thought you were calling football play.
Yes indeed! I'm tired of all heat and no anvil tops....
Lol 33 halfback slam on 2 ready? Break!
A likely explanation is the above-normal wind speeds in April over the area that has cooled:
I think there was a little cooling after 1945. But then it started going up. Im not a scientist but I know many and they tell me it is not so much the ground temperature to watch but the troposphere is getting warmer. Would anybody have an idea why this is so?
I recommend sticky notes. My cubical is covered in them. Sadly they don't help me to remember where I put my pen.
(The video of tornado damage from Tripura, India.)
Oh, that one. Yeah, it looked bad.
Thanks Levi.
Link
Levi, one thing has always confused me. What is the difference between an anomalous reading and a current one? In this link, it would appear the Gulf and the Gulfstream have warmed back up considerably.
Link
You might be confusing two different global climate change advocacy groups. The head of 350.org project spoke out against the No Pressure short.
Texas, Florida, Georgia...etc are really in need of a lot of rain
Caribbean Sea:
Tropical Atlantic:
CPC appears to rely on tropical storms for their South Florida outlook.
From Link
I wunder which way they will go on da graph thingee?
co2now.org
394.45ppm
Atmospheric CO2 for March 2012
Looks like this season is just setting up to be homegrown.with all the instability,warm water,and lower than average wind shear in the Gulf and Caribbean.This foreshadowing ain't even funny no more.
Read up on 'global dimming'.
During the period following WWII we pumped huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere as we engaged in a period of industrial growth and powered it with non-scrubbed coal plants.
Also read about acid rain. All that SO2 and NOx that poured out of our smokestacks both blocked sunlight and destroyed lakes and forests.
When you read about people suggesting that we shoot SO2 into our atmosphere as a form of geo-engineering to curtail planet warming what they are talking about is returning us to those glory days.
As for sunspots and global temperature, Skeptical Science has a good page on that. You might want to read it and introduce your teacher to it as well.
Caribbean disturbance is under loads of shear...it has been generated as a stuck upper trough in the W Atlc has been producing divergence over the South American monsoon/ITCZ. But also this same upper trough is shearing it. The models shift the upper trough east and de-amplify it...so expect this activity to shift east and weaken...
The more interesting feature is the frontal boundary low moving SE from the Carolinas...which produce the strong t-storms in east North Carolina yesterday with the help of a SE-moving shortwave upper trough. It has slipped under a more favorable east-west upper ridge axis ahead of the shortwave....but this low pressure looks weak and isn't developinng that much at this time...
As of right now the vertical instability in the EPac is lower than normal:
Wouldn't that slow down some convection generation in the EPac thus lessen the shear in the ATL?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hurricane Ike Category 4 hurricane (SSHS)
Hurricane Ike at peak intensity.
Formed September 1, 2008
Dissipated September 14, 2008
Highest winds 1-minute sustained:
145 mph (230 km/h)
Lowest pressure 935 mbar (hPa); 27.61 inHg
Fatalities 103 direct, 92 indirect
Damage $37.6 billion (2008 USD)
(Second costliest tropical cyclone in U.S. history)
Areas affected Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Florida Keys, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, Great Lakes region, eastern Canada
Part of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Ike was the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba, the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland (as a tropical storm) in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and the last hurricane to make landfall in the United States until Hurricane Irene in 2011. It was the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It was a Cape Verde-type hurricane, as it started as a tropical disturbance near Africa at the end of August. On September 1, 2008, it became a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands. By the early morning hours of September 4, Ike was a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a pressure of 935 mbar (27.61 inHg).[5] That made it the most intense Atlantic storm of 2008. Ike passed over the Turks and Caicos Islands as Category 4, with winds 135 mph (215 km/h) on September 7. Moving west along Cuba, it made two landfalls – as a Category 4 hurricane on September 7 and as a Category 1 hurricane two days later. Ike made its final landfall near Galveston, Texas as a strong Category 2 hurricane, on September 13, 2008, at 2:10 am CDT. Hurricane-force winds extended 120 miles (195 km) from the center and tropical storm-force winds extended far beyond that.
Ike was blamed for at least 195 deaths. Of these, 74 were in Haiti, which was already trying to recover from the impact of three storms earlier that year: Fay, Gustav, and Hanna. In the United States, 112 people were killed, and 23 are still missing. Due to its immense size, Ike caused devastation from the Louisiana coastline all the way to the Kenedy County, Texas region near Corpus Christi, Texas. In addition, Ike caused flooding and significant damage along the Mississippi coastline and the Florida Panhandle Damages from Ike in U.S. coastal and inland areas are estimated at $29.6 billion (2008 USD), with additional damage of $7.3 billion in Cuba (the costliest storm ever in that country), $200 million in the Bahamas, and $500 million in the Turks and Caicos, amounting to a total of at least $37.6 billion in damage. Ike was the second costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time, only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (not adjusted for inflation; if adjusted, Ike would be the third costliest storm). It became the largest search-and-rescue operation in U.S. history. It was also resulted in millions leaving the Houston/Galveston area and other parts of Texas. However, Hurricane Rita still holds the designation as the largest U.S. evacuation in history.At one point, Ike was over 600 miles in diameter.On the morning of September 13, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike approached the upper Texas coast, making landfall at 2:10 am CDT over the east end of Galveston Island, with a high storm surge, and travelled north up Galveston Bay, along the east side of Houston [102] (see storm-path image). People in low-lying areas who had not heeded evacuation orders, in single-family one- or two-story homes, were warned by the weather service that they faced "certain death" from the overnight storm surge,[53] a statement that turned out to be true for some unable to evacuate.[103]
In regional Texas towns, electrical power began failing on September 12 before 8 pm CDT,[53] leaving millions without power (estimates range from 2.8 million[104] to 4.5 million[105] customers). Grocery store shelves in the Houston area were left empty for weeks in the aftermath of the storm.[106]
Flood waters begin to rise in a neighborhood of Bayou Vista, Texas.
In Galveston, by 4 pm CDT (2100 UTC) on September 12, the rising storm surge began overtopping the 17-ft (5.2 m) Galveston Seawall, which faces the Gulf of Mexico; waves had been crashing along the seawall earlier, from 9 am CDT. Although Seawall Boulevard is elevated above the shoreline, many areas of town slope down behind the seawall to the lower elevation of Galveston Island.
Even though there were advance evacuation plans, Mary Jo Naschke, spokesperson for the city of Galveston, estimated that (as of Friday morning) a quarter of the city's residents paid no attention to calls for them to evacuate, despite predictions that most of Galveston Island would suffer heavy flooding storm tide.By 6 pm Friday night, estimates varied as to how many of the 58,000 residents remained, but the figures of remaining residents were in the thousands. Widespread flooding included downtown Galveston: six ft (2 m) deep inside the Galveston County Courthouse, and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was flooded.[102] 2,400 Medical Branch employees, including 120 faculty members, were laid off after Hurricane Ike devastated the university. Tourist attractions on the island suffered various degrees of damage. The Lone Star Flight Museum suffered massive damage, as the storm surge washed through the airport and hangars with about 8 feet (2.4 m) of water, and the recently completed Schlitterbahn Water Park was still closed in November 2008; however, Moody Gardens was built with storms in mind and was able to withstand the worst of the storm.Main article: Effects of Hurricane Ike in inland North America
On September 14, after Ike became extratropical and was enhanced by an upper level shortwave trough, a major wind event took place across the lower and middle Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes, and significant rainfall and flooding took place to the west. Several areas in Illinois and Indiana, already flooded by the frontal boundary to the north, saw significant additional rainfall.[122] Due to flooding in Chicago, Todd Stroger declared a state of emergency for Cook County due to flooding of the Des Plaines River. Hurricane-force wind gusts were reported to the east of the center across parts of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania with significant wind damage including structural damage to buildings and trees. The Louisville area declared a state of emergency due to major damage, and the Louisville International Airport was closed temporarily. A LG&E spokesperson said that this was the worst power outage in 30 years.[123] Later in the day, a statewide state of emergency was declared in Kentucky by Governor Steve Beshear.[124] Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was also temporarily shut down, and the control tower was evacuated. In Shannon County Missouri, an outdoor music festival was taking place; though a large tree fell causing a power outage and Sinking Creek was high there were no injuries reported. In Cincinnati, numerous reports of roof damage were called in to law enforcement, and on September 15, most of the schools in Hamilton County, Butler County, and Clermont County had classes cancelled because of power outages, some of which lasted seven days. Wind gusts of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) were recorded at Columbus, which is equivalent to sustained wind levels found in a Category 1 hurricane.[125] Additionally, a state of emergency was declared in Ohio on Monday.[126] Also in Salem, Indiana, wind gusts up to 81 miles per hour (130 km/h) were recorded. In Floyds Knobs, Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky, winds were reported in excess of 70 mph. In Indiana, high winds caused more than 200,000 customers to be without power throughout the state. Wind gusts of 63 miles per hour (101 km/h) were recorded at Indianapolis International Airport. Coming to Indianapolis, on September 14, Ike also caused damages to the first-ever motorcycle Grand Prix held in Indianapolis, stopping both 125cc and MotoGP races after the two thirds of the distance, and causing the cancellation of the 250cc race.
In Arkansas, about 200,000 customers lost power as a result of the winds, the worst power loss in that state since an ice storm in 2000. In the Louisville area, over 300,000 customers were without power — the worst power outage in the utility's history. The Cincinnati metropolitan area was hard hit as well, with over 927,000 customers losing power in that region. A Duke Energy spokesperson said "We have never seen anything like this. Never. We’re talking about 90 percent of our customers without power." There were so many power outages and so few workers available Duke Energy was thinking of sending workers from their base in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many homes and business were without power for 3–7 days. In the Dayton, Ohio area 300,000 of 515,000 Dayton Power & Light Co. customers lost power at some point following severe wind storms on the afternoon of September 14, according to a company spokesperson. As of Thursday morning, September 18, 90,000 DP&L customers remained without power. Also hard hit were central Ohio (with over 350,000 customers losing power) and northeastern Ohio (with over 310,000 customers losing power), as well as Illinois (49,000), Missouri (85,000), and western Pennsylvania (with over 180,000 customers losing power). In western Kentucky, outside crews had to be brought in from as far away as Mississippi to restore power.[135] In Indiana, about 350,000 customers lost power statewide, mainly in the southern part of the state. In New York State, over 100,000 customers were reported without power.[137] In total, 50 deaths have been blamed on Ike in the inland states.
Ah, okay. Thanks
I'm personally looking forward to Kirk:
I responded: I'm going to remember this. When Kirk comes,
this will be reposted. :P
Well, despite the fact that El Niño typically enhances convective activity in the East Pacific, as Levi mentioned in his Tropical Tidbit from March 27 (here), a negative PDO could generally suppress convective activity which wouldn't shear the Atlantic as much. I think a lack of Vertical Instability would limit the peak intensities of storms more than anything, just like last year in the Atlantic.
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