Storm hitting Europe

I saw this and was amazed. This breaking wave is spashing at least 100-200 feet into the air. Makes me shutter as to the type of damage that this type of wave action will do to the coast of England over the next 24-48 hrs.

Photo Credit: breaks over Pedn Men Dhu Cliff at Sennen in Cornwall

Related: Britain braced for new storm| the Daily Mail

Technorati Tags: Environment, Storms, England, North Sea,

White House Heavy Handedness with the CDC

Photo Credit:
jkpics

Just how are we to believe anything that comes out of the White House these days? They have to control every word that is said anywhere in the goverment.

White House CDC "edits" were a massacre
The word-count for the CDC Director's Senate testimony went from 3,107 to 1,500 after the White House got through with it...Read More

Technorati Tags: Environment, White House, Congress

So Much for Bush and his concern for the Earth

Photo Credit: monique72

U.S. Cuts Back Climate Checks From Space

The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.... Read More

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, POTUS

The Warming of the Solar System

Photo Credit: mmagallan

I have heard of this and have on occasion mentioned this to friends, who then give me strange looks for thinking this. But I was glad to see on Dig, this story: Is The Sun Getting Warmer? An interesting side question to "Global Warming" - that I never hear in the major media outlets or activist groups - is that for the last few years Astronomers have noted an increase in the temperature across the entire solar system. Don't get me wrong I think that we should deal with pollution and energy problems with green solution where ever possible. But it does bother me that most people only think in terms of humans causing of global warming or the head in the sand Republicans who say that they need more to even believe that it is happening at all (see Bush & Company).

What was the most Powerful Hurrican, Cyclon or Typoon ever recorded?

Photo Credit: Wikipedia: Hurricane Rita
in the Gulf of Mexico on September 21,
2005.

As Rita comes ashore we keep hearing that it is the third most powerful Atlantic Hurricane recorded. I got to thinking. What was the most Powerful Hurricane, Cyclone or Typhoon ever recorded?

I mean looking at Wikipedia they list the Labor Day storm of 1935 as having the lowest barometric pressure at landfall on N. America at 892 mbar (hPa). Katrina had 918 mbar (hPa) at landfall and God only knows what Rita will be as it comes ashore.

But my question is, what is the most powerful storm? And after some research I found Super Typhoon Tip in 1979. This was a truly Huge storm with tropical force winds extending out 675 miles. It had sustained winds of 190 mph and central pressure at 870 mbar (hPa), the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in a tropical cyclone.

To give an illustration of its size Wikipedia gave this:

...if a similar-sized hurricane hit south Florida directly, tropical storm force winds would be felt as far north as Charlotte, North Carolina and as far south as Merida, Mexico and Kingston, Jamaica

Luckily it weakened by the time it made landfall in Japan, but nonetheless caused significant damage. Tip cost the agricultural and fishing industries of Japan millions of dollars in damage. There were 68 deaths from Tip. Hopefully Rita will weaken some more before it makes landfall also.

Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'

Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'. That is the headline in the Guardian and the BBC.

· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.

· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.

· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are over harvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.

· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.

· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.

None of these should be a real surprise a couple of years ago an other report showed that humans have changed 83% of all land.

The Human Footprint

Analysis of the human footprint map indicates that 83% of the land's surface is influenced by one or more of the following factors: human population density greater than 1 person per square kilometer, within 15 km of a road or major river, occupied by urban or agricultural land uses, within 2 km of a settlement or a railway, and/or producing enough light to be visible regularly to a satellite at night. 98% of the areas where it is possible to grow rice, wheat or maize (according to FAO estimates) are similarly influenced.

It's time that the people of the world face the fact that if we want to continue as a species we need to reallocate are resources and look to colonization of space. Because it looks like if we don't. Nature will hit the reset button and we won't be part of the new order.

Water Wars in Asia?

Is this the harbinger of future "Water Wars" in Asia? article