This morning was a little different for me, owing to an event I’m attending tonight. I didn’t head to the computer as soon as I fired up the coffee maker, and that’s why I missed the news this morning of an 8.8 scale earthquake in Chile early this morning.
I believe that’s stronger than the one in Haiti so you’ve got to think the devastation is going to be that much worse. However, Chile’s position along the coast of South America added the possibility of tsunamis in the Pacific. I’m seeing stories of tsunami alerts in Hawaii and evacuation orders for all coastal areas on all of the Hawaiian islands. Based on projections, a tsunami generated by the earthquake will impact Honolulu, Oahu at 4:19 pm eastern time (11:19 am local).
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of Chile and to those in Hawaii and elsewhere still in danger’s path.
February 27th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest |
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Dr. Phil Jones is one of the leading lights of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) believers and is a central figure in the Climategate scandal. (Head over to Watts Up With That? and read the copious coverage on the matter over there. Anthony Watts’ work in this area has been invaluable.) In what should be considered a world-shaking event, Dr. Jones has finally admitted what many, many AGW skeptics have been saying for years. Via Instapundit, let’s head over to SonicFrog for some details:
Dr. Phil Jones, the man at the center of the Climategate scandal, has for the first time admitted that the Medieval Warm Period could have been warmer than the present day, flying directly in the face of the stupid Hocleystick Graph that caused so much of the Climate panic in the first place. From the BBC report, titled “Climate data ‘not well organised“:
Read up on the details over there but the crux is that Dr. Jones has admitted that the (ahem) science is not settled on whether or not the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) was actually warmer than we are experiencing today. Now, why is that important? The MWP is a time period between roughly 950 AD and 1400 AD where the temperatures were above the 20th century average temp. More importantly, there’s a section of that time period – roughly 1100 AD through 1350 AD – where the temperatures might have been significantly higher than we have experienced over this past couple of decades when people were telling us we’re roasting the planet into oblivion.
This brings up 2 very important and, for AGW believers, uncomfortable questions. If Man’s industrial activity and CO2 emissions are what’s causing global warming to run out of control, then how did the temperatures get higher 600-1000 years ago when no such industry existed? And why is it of absolutely critical importance that we execute economy-crippling changes to reduce the global temperature when we have evidence that the planet not only survived higher temperatures just fine, but that civilization overall benefited greatly?
The premise for these questions rests entirely on a factual assessment of whether the MWP was warmer than we are today. What Dr. Jones is now, belatedly, admitting is that his teams’ fervent assertions that they had settled that debate years ago were wrong. The debate isn’t settled. The science isn’t settled. And, as a result, the 2 questions above remain open, remain legitimate, and remain critical to answer before we go wrecking our economic capacity. Of course, Dr. Jones and his colleagues have made it incredibly difficult to go back and apply actual science to the question of the MWP. They’ve already admitted to having destroyed pertinent data in this debate so I’m a bit skeptical of anything they now assert without some independent corroboration. But the honesty with which Dr. Jones, at least, is returning to the table is encouraging. He needs to understand that his actions over the past decade or so will take time to overcome but it’s moves like this that will help him out. And the rest of us along with him.
February 13th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest, Politics, Science |
5 comments
Well, yesterday’s accumulation made it official: the winter of 2009-2010 is the current holder of record regarding the most snowfall in a season for the DC area, from Dulles Airport through DC and up to Baltimore.
The National Weather Service Baltimore set a new record, with 79.9 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. That’s the most since record-keeping began in Baltimore in 1893. The previous record, from 1995-96, was 62.5 inches.
Meanwhile, Washington also reached a seasonal snowfall record on Wednesday. Ten more inches fell at Reagan National, putting the total at 55.9 inches. That’s one 1.5 inches more than the previous record from the 1898-99 season.
Washington Dulles International Airport, broke its seasonal snowfall record on Tuesday, with 75 inches. The previous record of 61.9 inches was set in the 1995-96 season.
And being that I’m closer to Dulles than to any of the other locations mentioned, you can correctly assume that the snowfalls at Le Chateau HoodaThunk? are coming in closer to the 75 inch mark than to DC’s 56 inches. Of course, we must also keep in mind that winter ain’t over yet. The long-range weather forecasts are calling for “snow showers” on Monday. That’s usually snowfall of a much lesser magnitude than what we’ve experienced this week but we’re all a little jumpy at the moment. For now, I’m going to enjoy the sunshine coming down and hope that it helps melt off some of the stuff on the house and driveway.
And the roads, please. Definitely the roads.
Update: BY the way, the folks over at WTOP News’ weather desk thought it would be interesting to see how our winter totals are stacking up to some other cities’ totals for this winter and picked a selection of places considered snowier than the norm. Here’s what they found:
- Chicago: 45.1”
- Detroit: 27.5”
- Minneapolis: 38.1″
- Boston: 30.1”
- Bangor 5.5”
- Fargo, ND: 46.0”
Putting it bluntly: we’re kickin’ their asses. Of course, this is a competition I’d love to be losing…
February 11th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest |
one comment
In the official readings, this storm is coming in 4th in the list of all-time worst but according to the story on WTOP we in northern Virginia got hit a lot worse than DC. Here’s the totals reported:
Maryland
- Adams Town – 27 inches
- Annapolis – 17.6 inches
- Baltimore – 20 inches
- BWI Airport – 28 inches
- Colesville – 40 inches
- Frostburg – 36 inches
- Gaithersburg – 25 inches
- Kensington – 21 inches
- Olney – 28 inches
D.C.
- D.C. – 20 inches
- Reagan National Airport – 17.8 inches
Virginia
- Burke – 26 inches
- Dulles – 32 inches
- Kingstown – 25 inches
- Leesburg – 35 inches
- Warrenton – 25 inches
West Virginia
- Keyser – 25.5 inches
- Mount Storm – 18 inches
Leesburg and Dulles are closest to me and those figures sound about right. Measurements taken in the neighborhood after the snow stopped seemed to average around 30-31″. Given the depth of the snow I waded through in the back yard while I was checking on the 2 trees I lost, I’d have to say we fell in line with that average pretty nicely.
Now we get to turn our attention to Tuesday when the next one’s supposed to be coming in. This one’s not a repeat of this weekend, I’m hearing, but it’s no light dusting, either. More to come on that as they give us more.
February 7th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest |
no comments
That’s OK. I wasn’t planning on clearing the path to my mailbox today, anyway.
February 6th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest |
2 comments
One of my out-of-town relatives asked me recently whether our snowfall this winter was setting any records. Well, WTOP News has a story up telling us that we could very well break the record for the last 100 years this weekend. And we’re certainly on track to break the all-time record for this season.
We’ve already broken 1 record with our December 19 storm – that’s the most snowfall DC’s seen in December, ever. (We usually don’t get big snows until after the new year.) According to the story, we’re sitting at 27.3″ of snow this year so far. We’re 18.7″ away from the 100 year record, so that one could fall easily by tomorrow evening. And between now and the end of the snowy season, we only need another 27.1″ to bust the all-time record. If we manage to get the 18.7″ (officially) this weekend, that means we only need another 8″, roughly, for the rest of the winter to top the record.
Considering how things are tracking this year, I’m thinking that might not be too difficult.
So, what’s the leaderboard looking like for snowfall totals? According to the graphic from News Channel 7 that accompanies the WTOP story, it looks like this:
| Winter of |
Inches |
| 1898-99 |
54.0 |
| 1995-96 |
46.0 |
| 1921-22 |
44.5 |
| 1891-92 |
41.7 |
| 1904-05 |
41.0 |
The only one of these years that I saw, personally, was 1995-96 and it was a doozy. I guess we’ll see what nature’s got in store for us this weekend very soon.
February 5th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest |
one comment
There’s been some serious updates to the ongoing collapse of the AGW industry that have come so quickly I’ve not had time to bring them all up. If you’re interested in this stuff – and, given what the AGW set wants to do to your standard of living, you should be – you really need to be following Watts Up With That? both at their blog and on Twitter.
Read the posts from the past week over there and you’ll be treated to the following information very likely ignored or soft-pedaled by your local MSM:
- The IPCC report talking about how the glaciers in the Himalayas were all going to be melted away by 2035 – you know, based on peer-reviewed scientific consensus – was actually based on a single person’s completely unproven and untested commentary given in an interview on a phone call. Absolutely no peer review or any actual science was involved.
- The “scientist” behind that aforementioned report knew full well that the comment wasn’t peer reviewed. He used it in his report anyway for the express purpose of manipulating policy decisions in various governments. Read that again: he knew what he was saying wasn’t true and he lied to get your government to do things his way.
- Following on the revelation of those 1st two items, various climate research groups, NASA included, have been either deleting or “correcting” their own internal reports to remove references to that IPCC report.
- The UN predictions of increased natural disasters owing to global warming were based on more reporting by scientists who had not done the real science and which was withdrawn by those scientists because they felt the evidence wasn’t strong enough. Note that the withdrawal wasn’t considered important enough by the UN to actually change their own predictions.
- The IPCC report referenced in my 1st point above contained references to non-peer-reviewed papers published by the World Wildlife Fund, an organization who explicitly states that they don’t publish a peer-reviewed journal. That didn’t stop the IPCC from using their reports as support for their conclusions at all.
As I’ve repeated stated, we need the real science to determine what the correct move is in terms of climate change. That’s assuming any “move” is even possible. So-called “scientists” like these and the supporters of AGW theory who push for massive changes to our economy with no real evidence to back up their claims are damaging our ability to make rational decisions. We should stop with the hysteria and re-engage the scientific inquiry and we should do so as quickly as we can.
January 25th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Blogging, Environment, Politics, Science |
no comments
The efforts at sending aid to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit early last week are slowly ramping up to speed. NGO’s such as Catholic Charities were already there when the quake hit and supplies and money are both coming in. The Red Cross is putting a massive amount of money and people on the ground there as quickly as can be done. The US military is either already on the scene or soon will be – the USS Carl Vinson, one of America’s Nimitz class supercarriers, arrived 2 days ago – bringing not only supplies but desperately needed transportation and the ability to secure the area.
The American people are stepping up, too. With special collections at Sunday Masses and the huge response to the Red Cross’s innovative “text-to-donate” program Americans are proving once again that they are some of the most compassionate people on the planet. Other nations are throwing in, yes, but we can be justly proud of our response.
Stories are coming up about anger rising in Haiti from people who have been waiting days for relief supplies and assistance. One thing I’m not hearing this time is a rising chorus of people here in this country blaming the administration for the lack of speed. Jerry Fuhrman at From On High puts it nicely in his post, “An Object Lesson in Disaster Relief“:
I think it’s instructive for those who blamed George W. Bush for failure to respond to the Katrina hurricane disaster in Louisiana promptly to see how Obama’s dealing with a similar crisis in Haiti. Surprise: It’s just not that easy to mobilize a national effort at bringing desperately needed relief to a population that has lost everything – including infrastructure:
…
Despite the efforts of the Obama administration to mount a massive relief effort, thus far that effort has failed miserably. But he won’t be blamed.
And he shouldn’t be. This stuff takes times, whether you’re willing to accept it or not.
Maybe it’s time to reflect …
Indeed it is. President Obama is putting quite a bit of this nation’s capability on the table to help out in Haiti but warp drive ain’t one of the tools in his bag. It takes time to assess and give the right orders. It takes time to carry those orders out. Just like last time. Reflection would be the appropriate response. An apology would be, too, but I’d settle for some acknowledgment that it was tougher than some people gave it credit for.
January 17th, 2010
Posted by
ricjames |
Environment, Human Interest, Politics, The Media |
no comments
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