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September 24, 2005
Yet another super storm
Hard on the heels of Hurricane Katrina comes Hurricane Rita, already clocking up wind speeds in excess of Katrina. More than a million people, according to our news, were being told to evacuate the Texas Gulf Coast as the storm approaches. Interestingly, this time, the authorities are laying on busses and aircraft to move those without their own transport, yet even so, the Interstate seems to be almost at a standstill. At least Rita seems to have moderated a bit as it heads inland - it's now down to a Category 3!
The storm itself is over 400km (a little over 250 miles from side to side), and is notching up wind speeds in excess of 160 miles per hour. That is some storm, and it is still gaining power as it soaks up energy over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico! Scientific American, a magazine I subscribe too, recently published an article on the results of a survey of these storms over the last twenty years, and reports that they are, in fact, increasingly powerful and frequent. Now the "Global Warming" lobby - led by the Haed of the UK's Environmental Research Section - are already out and shouting "it's all the US's fault", but is it? Or is it something much bigger and much, much less controllable? It is notable that the Kyoto Protocol is once again being waved at the US and Australia, but it's notable exclusions and licenses to pollute for "developing" nations are simply waved aside when challenged. Nor are these same "experts" prepared to express an opinion on the ongoing destruction of the Indonesian rainforests, the Jungles of central America and the Far East and the Amazon Basin - or the Congo Basin for that matter. These are all in "developing" nations. They aren't "rich" so we can't blame them can we?
In the Scientific American and in New Scientist and Astronomy I have read nuemrous other reports that show that our planet occupies a rather unique position in space, a narrow band of space that is exactly the right distance from the sun so that we do not fry or freeze. At the present moment, our orbit is on the "inner" edge of that bad, so we are, effectively closer to the sun - ergo; the planet gets more heat! That is not to say we are not compounding this in some ways, but it does seem to explain some of the more extreme situations we seem to have lately. The other half of this equation is the ocean itself, absorbing a lot more heat as it is, it would seem likely that we can soon expect to see even more of these super storms since they form over "hot spots" in the ocean and then gather strength from other hot spots as they head North.
At this point in time there is little any of us can do except pray for those who are travellig and for those who will lose everything.
Posted by The Gray Monk at September 24, 2005 10:47 PM
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