Replies to post #140770 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[DesertDrifter]

I agree on the weather... i think it is part of Global Climate Turbulence. I know it was a La Nina winter, but it is far from over here. I burned more firewood than any winter ever... it was cold for very long stretches with no mild periods. I still have the woodstove cranked today, it is raining and 48 degrees out. And the snowpack in the Warners is so heavy that i still can't get up to the high elevations where i cut lodgepole pine firewood.

The kids are coming up this weekend and we were going to go camping, but it is just too chilly and wet to have fun camping, so we are going to just make daytrips from my house to dig opals, etc. Having it be too cold for drinking beer on memorial day is a legitimate reason for cap and trade. And since i always celebrate the first time the temperature hits 90 degrees with a tall gin and tonic, i will probably be thirsty for a long time this summer.

[bulldzr]

Steph... Regarding the terrible devastation in Joplin, MO... I heard Palin say she could see Joplin from the back patio of her new house in Scottsdale, and her prayers were with the folks in Missouri and hoped they have the "fire in their belly" too.

[fuagf]

Scary is bad enough and it's different in NSW, too. 2011 summer was the driest in the historical records , what a terrible experience for Joplin, (1500 unaccounted for was posted) and how lucky to live through, the thought yesterday, on seeing a man helped from a pile of rubble, maybe his house.

Tragically, death to humans, to fellow animals, death to hospitals, hospices, homes and hotels, from the rape of the trees.

Aside for perspective: The north coast of NSW today is under an extreme weather warning. Wind speed predicted 111km/h, that's 68.97m/h. Joplin winds i've read exceeded 200m/h. We suffer our floods, yep, KNOCK on wood re Australian winds. Natures relief for Joplin is now seven days of thunderstorms. .. http://www.wunderground.com/US/MO/Joplin.html

"It seems to me everywhere the earth is telling us stuff ...whether subtly or loudly ... some of us
are listening & seeing ... and many have been FORCED to listen ... and then there are those ..
who just don't seem to see or hear ... .. or understand what everything is showing us."

Yup, this post of yours .. "A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never!" .. wraps that observation of yours nicely. .. notes, excerpts ..

.. Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. .. between ..

.. rubble pictures from Joplin, Mo. this week .. Tuscaloosa, Ala. tornado outbreak three weeks ago .. the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history.
[ http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/official-fatalities-reported-as-tornado-hits-southwest-missouri/2011/05/22/AFXAiP9G_story.html ]
.. unprecedented fires in the USA .. in Texas now .. Texas, adjoining parts, Oklahoma and
New Mexico, drier than they’ve ever been — drought worse than that of the Dust Bowl ..

.. do not wonder if they’re somehow connected.

.. 20l1 Midwest, record snowfalls and rainfalls ... record flooding along the Mississippi ..

.. global warming, ... 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 air.

.. unprecedented megafloods in Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan in the past year.

.. Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years.

.. the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year drought in the past five years

.. the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the past decade —

.. well, you might have to ask other questions. Such as: Should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal mining?

.. Should Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sign a permit this summer allowing a huge new
pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might also have to ask yourself:
........................
Insert: Australia .. Labor rebuffs Greens on coalmines
Matthew Franklin and Sid Maher .. The Australian
[Murdoch's] .. May 25, 2011 12:00AM

The Greens have lately sharpened their anti-coal rhetoric as they continue
their negotiations with the Prime Minister about the design of a carbon tax.

Ms Gillard agreed to work with the Greens on the issue after last year's election produced a hung parliament,
forming a multi-party committee to give the minor party input in return for its support for her minority government.

On Monday, Greens deputy leader Christine Milne, who favours a swift switch to renewable energy sources and believes lost jobs
would be replaced by clean energy jobs, made clear she had no patience for a long transition away from fossil fuels.

"The Greens have said very clearly: no new coalmines, no extension of existing coalmines; let's invest in renewables - the technology exists," Senator Milne said. She also attacked the emerging coal-seam gas industry as "a disaster for Australia", despite it creating thousands of jobs.

Mr Ferguson yesterday rejected the Greens' view, issuing an unambiguous vote of confidence in the resources sector. "Not only does the coal-seam methane export industry have a great potential for Australia over the next 10 to 20 years, but so has the coal sector, and I might say the iron ore sector," he said. "That's despite, I might say, when it comes to coal-seam methane, LNG and the coal industry, the best endeavours of the Greens to undermine and destroy that industry in Australia."

In a veiled attack on the Greens' contention that jobs lost could be replaced by new positions in the renewable sector, Mr Ferguson said coal and coal-seam gas would deliver "real jobs and training opportunities" and "real export earnings" that would strengthen the overall national economy. Later, Mr Ferguson told The Australian that Australian coal was relatively clean by international standards and, if its exports ceased, customers such as China would be forced to use coal that would discharge greater levels of carbon.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-rebuffs-greens-on-coalmines/story-fn59niix-1226062290548
.........................KNOCK on wood the compromise will is the very best that could be arrived at .. notes, excerpts cont. ..

.. Do we have a bigger problem than $4-a-gallon gasoline?

.. Better to join with the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted 240 to 184 this spring to defeat a resolution saying simply that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.”

.. Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether.

.. Just don’t start asking yourself whether there might be some relation among

.. last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heat wave, and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France’s and Germany’s current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields.

.. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of anything systemic.

.. It’s very important to stay calm. If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Environmental Protection Agency in a recent filing: that there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what residents are telling themselves in Joplin today.

.. Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org and a distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont.

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63499332

I didn't intend to repeat so much of yours, in the end there was just so much real meat on the bone.

We can only appreciate efforts made by the Greens to clean up our act and so our world, and work to make the compromise the best available.

The deniers are doing us nothing but harm.