extreme weather

Huge Sand Storm Causes Power Outages, Closes Airport in Phoenix

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Some incredible footage from a huge sandstorm that blanketed Phoenix Arizona yesterday. One local resident said:

I have been in Arizona for 20 years and have never seen a storm this size. Once the dust reached us it was as dark as the middle of a moonless night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lay5xKSStqA]

Get ready for more and more extreme weather, folks, as our atmosphere continues to heat up thanks to our addiction to fossil fuels. As Chief Oren Lyons said when addressing the UN’s Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues back in 2007:

There is no mercy in nature; nature has none. It has only law, only rule. You don’t abide the rule, you suffer the result.

Want to hear more about the connection between extreme weather and climate change?  Check out these links:

Jeff Master’s Weather Underground: 2010 – 2011: The Earth’s Most Extreme Weather Since 1816?

Climate Progress: West Texas Sees Worst Drought Since Dust Bowl

An Introduction to Global Warming Impacts: Hell and High Water

Or have you had enough information, and are ready to move from “Well-Informed Futility Syndrome” to action, to protect your future, along with your children’s and grandchildren’s?  Moving from Futility Syndrome to action not only means your children have a chance at a better life, it also does wonders for your mental health!  I’m speaking as one who suffered from this syndrome until I was inspired by 350.org to take a stand back in October of 2009.  Check out these links, and/or contact me at 350orbust@gmail.com for practical ways to work on the most pressing issue of our times:

350.org: Moving Planet, Sept 24, 2011

A Rising Movement: 2010 Year in Review, 350.org

Citizens Climate Lobby (Canada)

Citizens Climate Lobby

An invitation to take action, and possibly engage in civil disobedience to demonstrate against the Keystone XL Pipeline project, was recently issued by leading North American activists, including Bill McKibbon, David Suzuki, Danny Glover, Naomi Klein, Dr. James Hansen, Maude Barlow, Tom Goldtooth, and others:

The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will quite possibly get you arrested.

Click here to the read the full invitation and to respond.

Extreme Weather Events: Brought To Us By Big Oil & Gas

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Happy Canada Day! What a week it’s been on the climate/weather front. Here in northwestern Ontario we’ve been experiencing a lovely June, although firefighters say it’s the driest summer in five years (which means they’ll have a busy summer). As I write this early in the morning, the sky is blue, the temperature is hovering around 25 degrees Celcius (that’s 77 degrees Fahrenheit for my American neighbours), and Mark is already out on the lake fishing with my brother and 11 year-old nephew. There are wildfires fires burning in our region but none very close.

However, life is not so idyllic in other parts of the world, even parts not far from us. Floods have made much of Manitoba and Saskatchewan farm land unseedable this year – 1 in 10 Saskatchewan farmers are not putting in a crop, and 3 million acres of Manitoba farmland won’t be planted. Meanwhile, the entire state of Texas has been declared a natural disaster because of drought and wildfires.

While it may be comforting to repeat the mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change,   we should also remember the words of Aldous Huxley, “facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Scientists have been warning us for decades that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is increasing as the atmosphere warms, and that this trend will only get worse as our greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

As Oklahoma and Texas swelter under record heat and drought, climate idiot Senator James Inhofe cancelled his appearance at the Heartland Denier conference due to being “under the weather”.  Climate Progress writes:

You may recall last year that Senator Inhofe’s grandchildren built an igloo to mock a killer snow storm, calling it ‘Al Gore’s New Home’.  Of course, extreme precipitation is precisely what we expect from human-caused global warming, but the story still got a lot of play in the media.

What’s more ironic is that the Senate’s leading climate denier bailed on the annual Heartland climate science denial conference this morning — saying “I am under the weather” (!) — just as his home state is being slammed by a record-smashing heatwave and a drought more severe than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

Yes, I know, it’s just coincidence, not a karmic backlash.  But then again climate science projects a permanent dust bowl for the Southwest if we keep listening to Inhofe.  It also projects that by century’s end, the state will be above 90°F for 135 days a year! Click here to read the full article.

But not all politicians share Inhofe’s anti-science bias. In Scotland this week, the government set a target of 100% renewable energy by 2020 (oh, Canada, you are so far behind in vision and leadership on this issue!). Go to “2020 Route Map For Renewable Energy in Scotland” to read more.

Meanwhile, showing that leadership on this issue must come from the grassroots, physicians in Prince Edward Island give their premier a petition signed by almost 200 island doctors asking for action on climate change. Click here for more.

Digital innovator Google also weighed in on the green energy economy this week. In a new report Google  says that without a private and public focus on innovation in renewables, storage, and electric vehicles, the cost of delaying the clean energy economy could be in the trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy. Go to Grist.org for a summary, with links to the Google analysis.

What are we waiting for? A new study outlines that the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years. Read more at the Washington Post.   It’s time, folks, to “just do it”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zavTd31qxho]

More links:

350.org

Citizens Climate Lobby U.S.

Citizens Climate Lobby (Canada)

Moving Planet – Manitoba: A Day To Move Beyond Fossil Fuels

Whatever You Do, DO NOT Draw A Connection Between Tornadoes And Climate Change

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Today’s article is cross-posted from 350.org. It was published in Monday’s Washington Post and is written by Bill McKibbon, founder of the global climate campaign 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advised to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas—fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been—the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it’s somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you’d have to also wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest—resulting in record flooding across the Mississippi—could somehow be related. And if you did that, then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming. To the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold.

It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself, over and over, the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods—that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these records are happening at once: why we’ve had unprecedented megafloods from Australia to Pakistan in the last year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. Focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the anchorman up to the chest of his waders in the rising river. Click here to read the rest of the article on the Washington Post.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZlGrTpXS4U&feature=player_embedded]

To find out how to help those devastated by the recent tornadoes, go to the Salvation Army or Red Cross websites.

[slideshow]

More links:

Floods, Tornadoes, And Climate Change

Joplin Disaster Spurs Media Whirlwind on Link Between Climate Change Extreme Weather and Tornadoes


Global Climate Disruption is Here

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Here in Canada, Newfoundland is still recovering from last week’s Hurricane Igor, which brought never-before-seen destruction to its Bonavista and Burin Peninsulas. Following that severe weather event, the central coast of British Columbia was hit with severe rains that have caused mudslides, cut off communities, and destroyed roads and bridges.

90-year-old Carrie Ricketts from Knight’s Cove Newfoundland said, after being stranded by Igor, that she’s never seen anything like this. Her daughter told CBC news:

“When I heard her voice cracking on the phone and she said to me, ‘Winnie if you saw the devastation, ah, you wouldn’t believe it.’ So, she is being shaken now to her roots.”

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Steven Waugh, Emergency Program Coordinator for the Central Coast Region, said:

“It was shocking, absolutely shocking, how much water has come down here in such a short period of time.”

This video from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sums up the global climate disruption that is going on right now:

We have to believe what we are witnessing with our own eyes — floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat. From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan, to soaring temperatures in the US and a deteriorating landscape in the High Arctic, our planet seems to be having a breakdown. It’s not just a portent of things to come but real signs of very troubling climate change already under way.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG41xDxrzI8&feature=player_embedded]

Please join with those of us that are taking action to protect our planet – it’s the only one we have. The movement is growing; just this week, over 100 people were arrested in front of the White House yesterday, after gathering to call on the Obama administration to abolish mountaintop removal mining. Among the people arrested is Dr. James Hansen, NASA scientist whose knowledge of the threat of climate change has prompted him to become an activist.

Need some ideas and inspiration? It’s not too late to get involved in the global 10/10/10 work party in your community. Go to 350.org for more on this amazing global movement.

More links:

National Resource Defense Council

FourYearsGo.org

Coalition of the Willing

Appalachiarising.org

Warming Atlantic Linked To Hurricane Igor Devastation in Newfoundland

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Much of the east coast of Newfoundland was devastated by Hurricane Igor on Tuesday. Roads have been washed out, electricity is gone, communities have been cut off from help, and one man has been washed out to sea. By now, at least 30 communities have declared a state of emergency.

The news coverage that I heard yesterday had locals emphasizing the unusual strength of Igor. The town clerk from Bonavista interviewed on As It Happens on CBC radio said he’d never seen winds that strong or rainfall that heavy in his lifetime – and Bonavista is on a windy, wet peninsula! Sam Synard, the Mayor of Marystown was quoted in The Star as saying:

“We’ve never seen such a violent storm before.” Synard reported that more than 200 millimetres of rain was dumped in 20 hours, “and very few, if any communities in the country, could deal with that amount of rainfall.”

My heart goes out to Newfoundlanders – “The Rock” is one of my favourite places on earth. The header photo on my blog was taken during a visit last September.  I wish the good people of Newfoundland Godspeed in their recovery from this devastation.

Unfortunately, the warming of the atmosphere and the resulting warming of the ocean which has happened as a result of our unbridled burning of fossil fuels in the last century is making severe weather events like this more and more frequent. The economic as well as the human toll will only increase (the Newfoundland government is predicting it will take at least $100 million to repair the damage from this storm). Recent research has shown that we are experiencing more storms with higher wind speeds, and these storms are more destructive, last longer and make landfall more frequently than in the past. This is our new reality, in Canada and around the globe, as the Arctic ice and the permafrost melt, and the oceans get warmer.  We are starting to reap the destruction that we have sown, and it’s not going to be pleasant.

It’s time for all of us to demand that our governments, particularly at the federal level, start addressing this issue in more ways that just preserving Canada’s claim to the Arctic so we can dig up more oil and gas! For ways to do this, check out Cheryl McNamara’s recent post on Bill C311 – the Climate Accountability Act, or go to my “Action not Apathy” page.

More links:

National Geographic: Is Global Warming Making Hurricanes Worse?

Union of Concerned Scientists: Hurricanes and Climate Change

Popular Science: Hurricane, Climate Change Link Explained

Real Climate: Hurricanes and Climate Change – Is There A Connection?

Canada, Russia expected to win Arctic claims at UN

The following photos were taken around Marystown, on the Burin Peninsula, by Andrew Lundrigan, and posted on the FB page “Hurricane Igor Hits Marystown”

Devastation in Pakistan is Unimaginable – But You and I Can Make A Difference

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U.S. Senator John Kerry has just returned from a trip to flooded Pakistan, and is shaken by what he saw. This is an excerpt from a posting on his Facebook wall:

I just got home to Massachusetts from seeing the floods in Pakistan — and what I saw there was as devastating and gripping as the last humanitarian crisis I emailed you about. Even as I sit here I’m shaken by the fact that this is Pakistan’s Katrina.

It’s not just that one fifth of the country – an area larger than all of New England, New York, New Jersey and Maryland combined – is submerged under historic flooding, or that with weeks left in the monsoon season, it could get even worse.

None of that captures what I saw and heard when our helicopter touched down. I went to Multan in the Punjab plains. This is no isolated hamlet, but an ancient city, a district capital with a population of over 1.5 million. And it’s inundated with water.

I spoke to the people, heard their stories, their desperation for food and water. They talked of the joy when they saw American Chinook helicopters – distinctive for their two big rotors – because they knew help was arriving. But the scale of the disaster hit me as I flew over the city and surrounding valley, mile after mile of Punjabi plains turned into a massive lake, this large city covered in water. Roads were washed out, vehicles abandoned, tall buildings turned into places of desperate refuge. Any flat surface high enough to escape the waters became a life-raft, often packed with people willing to bake in the hot sun rather than face the barrier of the flood-waters. The scene stretched on and on.

You can get a look at some of this – just get a small sense of it – watching this NBC News piece.

Senator Kerry goes on to encourage generosity in response to this disaster. I’ve posted some links on the bottom that enable you to do this, and if you are Canadian keep in mind our federal government is matching donations to Pakistan relief dollar for dollar. But please consider doing more than donating  money; talk about the link between climate change and extreme weather events like this one with your friends and family. Lower your own carbon footprint, then join together with other members of your community to lower its carbon footprint. We are all in this together!

Donation links:

Interaction

MCC

More links:

Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Pakistan: Living on the Edge

Waterborne Disease a Threat To Pakistan’s Children

Climate Change-Related Food Shortages Becoming a Reality

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This summer has been devastating as China, Pakistan, and Russia reel under extreme weather events. Pakistan in particular is in need of humanitarian  yet “donor fatigue” is cited as one of the reasons for the less generous aid responses so far. Food crops have been affected both in Russia and in Pakistan, with Russia responding by cancelling this year’s grain exports. In Pakistan, the floods have damaged wheat and rice crops as more than 17 million hectares of arable land lies under water. We already live in a world where one billion people go hungry every day. In a world experiencing climate change, food instability will only grow. According to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, more than 75% of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas, and most of these are small-scale farmers. These are the people most at risk of increased hunger from climate change.

Donor fatigue is not an option for those of us in the richest parts of the world who are directly responsible for the increased suffering around the globe. And let’s not stop with aid relief – take time to send a message to your government that it’s time to address climate change NOW, before it’s too late. And join 350.org’s 10-10-10 work party and make a difference in your community that will send ripples around the globe.

More links:

Go to The Humanitarian Coalition (Oxfam, CARE, and Save the Children) to donate to Pakistan Flood Relief.

Click here to tell world leaders to begin to address climate change by putting solar on their residences.

If you are Canadian, go to Canadian Foodgrains Bank climate change page to send a postcard to your MP commending the government for setting aside $400 million to help developing countries adapt to and fight climate change, and to ask that it goes to where it is most effective, and is given in the form of grants and not loans.

To get an idea of the stark reality of food shortages that climate change will bring about, view this slide show prepared by Dr. Peter Carter: Hello. This is the map to the end of our world. Goodbye.

credit: Canadian Foodgrains Bank

More “It’s Snowing So Global Warming Must Be a Hoax” Headlines

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Last month when the U.S. and Europe were brought to a standstill by brutal winter weather, there was a proliferation of posts on the blogosphere of contrarians shouting “It’s cold! It’s cold!  Whatever happened to global warming??”.  The eastern U.S. has just been slammed with snow again, and it seems these same people are at it again,too.  As I wrote then:

Some of these denialists really don’t get it!  Well, some of them do know better and just want to obscure the issue (check out the DeSmogBlog for more info on this); but a lot of them just haven’t done the research that is required to become better informed on this issue.  This is what scares me about their nonsense – these “it’s unusually cold therefore climate change isn’t happening” people are simply trying to out-shout the scientists who have studied this topic in depth.  It’s the Fox “News” approach to the most important issue humanity has ever faced – don’t do your homework, just shout louder than your opponent.

What is important to remember is that as more and more climate change-inducing emissions accumulate in our atmosphere (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) and form a warming “blanket” on the earth, our climate will become more and more unstable and unpredictable. The result will be more and more instances of extreme winter weather like parts of the world are now experiencing.  There will also be more droughts, hurricanes, etc.  That is one of the reasons that Former World Bank chief economist Lord Stern, recently revised his initial estimate that failure to act urgently on climate change would cost between 5 to 20 percent of global GDP, up to 50 percent or higher (a third of the world’s wealth).

Meanwhile, in the Arctic, The National Snow and Ice Data Center recently reported that “Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal, primarily in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Average air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean were much higher than normal for the month, reflecting unusual atmospheric conditions”.

Click here to read the full post from January 7th,  “Cold Snap “Proof” that Climate Change Not Happening?”.

  • But in the “good news” column, amidst the snow storm, the Obama adminstration has announced that it will be forming a new agency to monitor climate change. The announcement was made jointly by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco.  NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in cooperation with NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Ocean Service. Locke said at a news conference this week:

“Whether we like it or not, climate change represents a real threat. Climate change is real,  it’s happening now.”

Locke went on to say that  climate information is vital to the wind power industry, coastal community planning, fishermen and fishery managers, farmers and public health officials.

Click here to read more on Huffington Post.com

  • Another piece of good news is that the British Columbia government has rejected pressure from mining companies and announced this week that no mining, oil or gas development or coal-bed gas extraction will be allowed in the Flathead Valley in southern British Columbia.  The pristine area borders on a World Heritage Site, B.C.’s Waterton Park and Glacier park in Montana.  The government has said it will, instead, build a new “creative economy” around clean technology, innovative forestry industries and tourism.

Click here to read more.

Here’s a neat time lapse video of the recent snowfall in Washington D.C . posted by YouTube user “amandareckonwith“. Although for those of us on the Canadian prairie a snow storm is not as much as a novelty as it is, perhaps, for those folks in D.C.!