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<i><font size="+1"><b>August 29, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[3 min audio NPR]<br>
<b>Everything Is Unprecedented. Welcome To Your Hotter Earth</b><br>
August 28, 2020<br>
REBECCA HERSHER, NATHAN ROTT, LAUREN SOMMER<br>
The upshot of climate change is that everyone alive is destined to
experience unprecedented disasters. The most powerful hurricanes,
the most intense wildfires, the most prolonged heat waves and the
most frequent outbreaks of new diseases are all in our future.
Records will be broken, again and again.<br>
<br>
But the predicted destruction is still shocking when it unfolds at
the same time.<br>
<br>
This week, Americans are living through concurrent disasters. In
California, more than 200,000 people were under evacuation orders
because of wildfires, and millions are breathing smoky air. On the
Gulf Coast, people weathered a tropical storm at the beginning of
the week. Two days later, about half a million were ordered to
evacuate ahead of Hurricane Laura. We're six months into a global
pandemic, and the Earth is on track to have one of its hottest years
on record.<br>
<br>
Climate scientist Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii says if
our collective future were a movie, this week would be the trailer.<br>
<br>
"There is not a single ending that is good," he says. "There's not
going to be a happy ending to this movie."<br>
Mora was an author of a study examining all the effects of climate
change. The researchers concluded that concurrent disasters will get
more and more common as the Earth gets hotter. That means we will
live through more weeks like this one -- when fires, floods, heat
waves and disease outbreaks layer on top of one another.<br>
<br>
"Keep in mind that all these things are related," Mora explains.
"CO2 is increasing the temperature. As a result, the temperature is
accelerating the evaporation of water. The evaporation of water
leads to drought that in turn leads to heat waves and wildfires. In
places that are humid, that evaporation -- the same evaporation --
leads to massive precipitation that is then commonly followed by
floods."<br>
<br>
Disease outbreaks are also more likely. The most recent U.S.
National Climate Assessment warns that changing weather patterns
make it more likely that insect-borne illnesses will affect the U.S.
Climate change is also causing people and animals to move and come
in contact with one another in new and dangerous ways.<br>
<br>
If humans dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately,
scientists say it will help avoid the most catastrophic global
warming scenarios. Worldwide emissions are still rising, and the
United States is the planet's second-largest emitter.<br>
<br>
Mora says helping people connect the dots between the current
disasters and greenhouse gas emissions should be every scientist's
priority. "That's the million-dollar question," he says. "How do we
speak to people in a way that we get them to appreciate the
significance of these problems?"<br>
<b>Hurricanes and climate change</b><br>
Climate change is making the air and water hotter, and that means
more power for hurricanes.<br>
<br>
"Whenever you get ocean temperatures that are much above average,
you're asking for trouble," meteorologist Jeff Masters explains.
"And we've seen some of the warmest ocean temperatures on record for
the Atlantic basin this year."<br>
<br>
Hot water is like a battery charger for hurricanes. As a storm moves
over hot water, like Hurricane Laura did this week, it captures
moisture and energy very quickly. In recent years, scientists have
seen evidence that global warming is already making storms more
likely to grow large and powerful and more likely to intensify
quickly.<br>
<br>
That's an alarming trend. "We're not very good at forecasting rapid
intensification," Masters says. "That's critical because that gives
you less time to prepare if there's a storm rapidly intensifying
right before landfall."<br>
<br>
Scientists have also found that hurricanes are dropping more rain,
which means more flooding. Flooding is consistently the most deadly
and damaging effect of a hurricane. Studies show many people
underestimate the flood risks from hurricanes. Just a few inches of
moving water can make it impossible to stay on your feet or control
your car.<br>
<br>
Add all that to the current pandemic, and you get a dangerous
situation, especially for people living in the path of the storm. As
NPR has reported, safe options for people who evacuate this year
could be limited because group shelters might accept fewer people in
order to maintain social distancing.<br>
<br>
Concurrent disasters are hitting the country as more people struggle
to keep their homes during the economic crash. Andreanecia Morris,
the executive director of the nonprofit HousingNOLA, says this
week's hurricanes are especially risky to the many people in
Louisiana who don't have secure places to live because they were
evicted.<br>
<br>
"People are becoming more vulnerable as this COVID crisis goes on,"
Morris says, as more people get laid off or run out of savings. "We
have frankly been failing to serve the most vulnerable, and the
people who have been made vulnerable by these cascading
catastrophes."<br>
<br>
<b>Wildfires and Climate Change</b><br>
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the Western
wildfires, too.<br>
<br>
There are nearly 100 large uncontained fires burning across the U.S.
More than a million acres have burned in California alone -- almost
all in the last few weeks. The smoke has blanketed cities and cast a
haze from coast to coast.<br>
<br>
Wildfires, like hurricanes, are a natural occurrence. They existed
long before humans started rapidly changing the climate and are a
necessary process for many Western landscapes. But a growing body of
scientific evidence shows that a warming climate has changed the
status quo.<br>
<br>
Fires are burning more frequently and intensely in places where
they've always occurred, and they're creeping into places where they
were previously rare.<br>
<br>
Wildfires thrive on high heat, low humidity, strong winds and dry
vegetation, all of which are more likely to occur in a warming
climate, says Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of earth system sciences
at Stanford University.<br>
<br>
Diffenbaugh was a co-author of a recent study that found climate
change has doubled the number of days when conditions would support
extreme fire in California. "And it's particularly increased the
odds that those conditions occur broadly, simultaneously,"
Diffenbaugh says.<br>
<br>
Take the fires currently burning across the West.<br>
<br>
Two of the fire clusters in California are among the five largest
wildfires in state history. The Pine Gulch Fire, chewing across the
Western slope of the Colorado Rockies, is now largest fire in that
state's history.<br>
<br>
All occurred during a heat wave that broke temperature records from
Texas to Washington state. Death Valley, Calif., reached 130 degrees
Fahrenheit, a temperature, if verified, that would rank as one of
the hottest ever reliably recorded on the planet. At the same time,
scientists are warning that Colorado and much of the Western U.S.
may be in the early stages of a climate-fueled megadrought, the
likes of which haven't been seen in the last 1,200 years.<br>
"When you have warmer temperatures and you're lengthening the warm
season, you're also lengthening the time when wildfires have a
chance to start and grow," says Becky Bolinger, Colorado's assistant
state climatologist.<br>
<br>
The fire season is growing at a time when more people are in harm's
way. Millions of houses in the Western U.S. have been built in
fire-prone areas, many before building codes required fire-resistant
roofs and siding. Many landscapes are also primed to burn because of
overgrown brush and trees. For much of the last century, the U.S.
Forest Service and other fire agencies extinguished wildfires,
allowing vegetation to build up.<br>
<br>
Experts say that living with both destructive wildfires and
hurricanes will take more planning and preparation. Communities will
have to strengthen existing homes and infrastructure, as well as
improve evacuation and emergency plans. Some neighborhoods could
prove too unsafe for residents at all.<br>
<br>
How bad it eventually gets depends on how quickly the world can
reduce carbon emissions. But the past weeks should make clear:
"Climate change and its impacts are not the future," says Crystal
Kolden, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced.
"They are now."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/28/905622947/everything-is-unprecedented-welcome-to-your-hotter-earth">https://www.npr.org/2020/08/28/905622947/everything-is-unprecedented-welcome-to-your-hotter-earth</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[night video footage]<br>
<b>Extreme Hurricane Laura Footage - 4K UHD</b><br>
Tornado Trackers<br>
Aug 28, 2020<br>
Category 4 Hurricane Laura as seen from Lake Charles, LA on August
26-27, 2020. Winds of over 140+mph ripped the city apart in the
middle of the night as our team hunkered down in a parking garage
during the worst of the storm. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAp85tMdAM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAp85tMdAM</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[unique satellite image from way above]<br>
<b>Hurricane Laura churning over the Gulf of Mexico overnight as
lightning strikes.</b><br>
Gif: Dakota Smith/CIRA/NOAA<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/urxsba9cnkrqusgi1dv9.webm">https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/urxsba9cnkrqusgi1dv9.webm</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[7 min video documentary news report]<br>
<b>Hurricane Laura causes widespread destruction in Louisiana and
Texas | DW News</b><br>
Aug 28, 2020<br>
DW News<br>
Recovery efforts are underway in the southern US after one of the
most powerful storms in years. Hurricane Laura left at least six
people dead after smashing into Louisiana with winds of 240
kilometers an hour. Meteorologists have downgraded it to a tropical
storm that threatens to bring strong winds, rain and tornadoes as it
moves northeast.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0ZPA2DO0e0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0ZPA2DO0e0</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[Yale and Jeff Masters]<br>
<b>Climate change is causing more rapid intensification of Atlantic
hurricanes </b><br>
Rapidly intensifying storms like Hurricanes Laura, Michael, and
Harvey are dangerous because they can catch forecasters and the
public off guard.By Jeff Masters, Ph.D. | Thursday, August 27, 2020<br>
<br>
Hurricane Laura put on a phenomenal show of rapid intensification
prior to landfall, increasing in strength by 65 mph in just 24 hours
on August 26, 2020. That ties Hurricane Karl of 2010 for fastest
intensification rate in the Gulf of Mexico on record. In the 24
hours prior to landfall, Laura's winds increased by 45 mph, and the
mighty hurricane made landfall in western Louisiana as a category 4
storm with 150 mph winds - the strongest landfalling hurricane in
Louisiana history, and the fifth-strongest hurricane on record to
make a continental U.S. landfall.<br>
<br>
Laura's rapid intensification was a disturbing déjà vu of what had
happened just two years earlier.<br>
<br>
<b>Analysis</b><br>
As Hurricane Michael sped northwards on October 9, 2018, towards a
catastrophic landfall on Florida's Panhandle, the mighty hurricane
made an exceptionally rapid intensification. Michael's winds
increased by 45 mph in the final 24 hours before landfall, taking it
from a low-end category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds to
catastrophic category 5 storm with 160 mph winds. And Michael's
performance echoed what had happened in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey
rapidly intensified by 40 mph in the 24 hours before landfall, from
a Category 1 storm with 90 mph winds to a Category 4 storm with 130
mph winds.<br>
<b>Human-caused climate change causing more rapidly intensifying
Atlantic hurricanes</b><br>
Unfortunately, not only is human-caused climate change making the
strongest hurricanes stronger, it is also making dangerous rapidly
intensifying hurricanes like Laura and Michael and Harvey more
common.<br>
<br>
According to research published in 2019 in Nature Communications,
Atlantic hurricanes showed "highly unusual" upward trends in rapid
intensification during the period 1982 - 2009, trends that can be
explained only by including human-caused climate change as a
contributing cause. The largest change occurred in the strongest 5%
of storms: for those, 24-hour intensification rates increased by
about 3 - 4 mph per decade between 1982 - 2009.<br>
<br>
Led by hurricane scientist Kieran Bhatia of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory - and titled "Recent increases in tropical
cyclone intensification rates" - the study used the HiFLOR model to
simulate intense hurricanes. HiFLOR is widely accepted as the best
high-resolution global climate model for simulating intense
hurricanes.<br>
<br>
<b>Dangerous scenario - rapidly intensifying hurricane making
landfall</b><br>
Rapidly intensifying hurricanes like Michael and Harvey that
strengthen just before landfall are among the most dangerous storms,
as they can catch forecasters and populations off guard, risking
inadequate evacuation efforts and large casualties. A particular
concern is that intensification rate increases are not linear as the
intensity of a storm increases - they increase by the square power
of the intensity.<br>
<br>
Lack of warning and rapid intensification just before landfall were
key reasons for the high death toll from the 1935 Labor Day
hurricane in the Florida Keys, the most intense hurricane on record
to hit the U.S. That storm intensified by 80 mph in the 24 hours
before landfall, and it topped out as a Category 5 hurricane with
185 mph winds and an 892 mb pressure at landfall. At least 408
people were killed, making it the eighth-deadliest hurricane in U.S.
history.<br>
<br>
Another rapidly intensifying hurricane at landfall, Hurricane Audrey
in June 1957, tracked on nearly the same course as Hurricane Laura.
Audrey was the seventh deadliest U.S. hurricane, killing at least
416. Its winds increased by 35 mph in the 24 hours before landfall
near the Texas/Louisiana border as a Category 3 hurricane with 125
mph winds. Lack of warning and an unexpectedly intense landfall were
cited as key reasons for the high death toll.<br>
<br>
With today's satellites, radar, regular hurricane hunter flights,
and advanced computer forecast models, the danger that another
Audrey or 1935 Labor Day hurricane could take us by surprise is
lower.<br>
<br>
But all of that sophisticated technology didn't help much for 2007's
Hurricane Humberto, which hit Texas as a Category 1 storm with 90
mph winds. Humberto had the most rapid increase in intensity, 65
mph, in the 24 hours before landfall of any Atlantic hurricane since
1950. A mere 18 hours before landfall, the National Hurricane Center
(NHC) in 2007 had predicted a landfall intensity of just 45 mph,
increasing its forecast estimate to 65 mph six hours later. It's
fortunate that Humberto was not a stronger system, as the lack of
adequate warning could have led to serious losses of life.<br>
<br>
Historical records show that since 1950, the eight storms have
intensified by at least 40 mph in the 24 hours before landfall. It
is sobering to see three of those storms, below in bold face,
occurred in the past four years:<br>
<br>
Humberto, 2007 (65 mph increase);<br>
King 1950 (60 mph increase);<br>
Eloise 1975 (60 mph increase);<br>
Danny 1997 (50 mph increase);<br>
<b>Laura 2020 (45 mph increase);</b><b><br>
</b><b>Michael 2018 (45 mph increase);</b><b><br>
</b><b>Harvey 2017 (40 mph increase);</b> and<br>
Cindy 2005 (40 mph increase).<br>
<br>
<b>Extreme rapid intensification rates just before landfall to
become more common</b><br>
In a 2016 study - "Will Global Warming Make Hurricane Forecasting
More Difficult?" from the Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society - MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel used a computer
model that generated a set of 22,000 landfalling U.S. hurricanes
between 1979 and 2005. Emanuel then compared their intensification
rates to a similar set of hurricanes generated in the climate
expected at the end of the 21st century.<br>
<br>
For the future climate, he assumed a business-as-usual approach to
climate change - the path we are currently on. Emanuel found that
the odds of a hurricane intensifying by 70 mph or more in the 24
hours just before landfall were about once every 100 years in the
climate of the late 20th century. But in the climate of the year
2100, these odds increased to once every 5 - 10 years.<br>
<br>
What's more, 24-hour pre-landfall intensifications of 115 mph or
more, essentially nonexistent in the late 20th-century climate,
would occur as often as once every 100 years by the year 2100.
Emanuel found that major metropolitan areas most at risk for extreme
intensification rates just before landfall included Houston, New
Orleans, Tampa/St. Petersburg, and Miami.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/0820_Fig1_haiyan_7nov13_1616Z_Iband5.png">https://yaleclimateconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/0820_Fig1_haiyan_7nov13_1616Z_Iband5.png</a><br>
Figure 1. VIIRS image of Super Typhoon Haiyan at 1619 UTC November
7, 2013. Haiyan at that point was about to make landfall near
Tacloban in the Philippines with 190 mph winds, the strongest
land-falling tropical cyclone in recorded history. (Image credit:
NOAA/CIRA)<br>
<br>
<b>Eight-fold increase in ultra-intense hurricanes predicted</b><br>
The same HiFLOR high-resolution global climate model for simulating
intense hurricanes referenced above produced some rather startling
findings detailed in a 2018 paper, Projected Response of Tropical
Cyclone Intensity and Intensification in a Global Climate Model.<br>
<br>
The scientists who authored that paper forecast a dramatic increase
in the global incidence of rapid intensification as a result of
global warming, and a 20% increase in the number of major hurricanes
globally.<br>
<br>
For the Atlantic, the model projected an increase from three major
hurricanes per year in the climate of the late 20th century, to five
major hurricanes per year in the climate of the late 21st century.<br>
<br>
The HiFLOR model also predicted a highly concerning increase in
ultra-intense Category 5 tropical cyclones with winds of at least
190 mph - from an average of about one of these Super Typhoon
Haiyan-like storms occurring once every eight years globally in the
climate of the late 20th century, to one such megastorm per year
between 2081 to 2100 - a factor of eight increase.<br>
<br>
Even more concerning was that the results of the study were for a
middle-of-the road global warming scenario (called RCP 4.5), which
civilization will have to work very hard to achieve. Under the
current business-as-usual track, the model would be expected to
predict an even higher increase in ultra-intense tropical cyclones.<br>
<br>
One technique for computing hurricane damage uses ICAT's damage
estimator to review all contiguous land-falling U.S. hurricanes
between 1900 - 2017. That technique computes the amount of damage
they would do currently and corrects for changes in wealth and
population. It finds that while Category 4 and 5 hurricanes made up
only 13% of all U.S. hurricane landfalls during that period, they
caused 52% of all the hurricane damage.<br>
<br>
Given that assessment, it's very concerning that the HiFLOR model,
the best model for simulating current and future behavior of
Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, is predicting a large increase in the
number of these destructive storms. Even more concerning is the
model's prediction of a global factor of eight increase in
catastrophic Category 5 storms with winds of at least 190 mph by the
end of the century - and that under a moderate global warming
scenario.<br>
<br>
All of which leads to the regrettable conclusion that the prospects
for quickly intensifying storms as they approach landfall are likely
to increase in a warming world.<br>
<br>
Website visitors can comment on "Eye on the Storm" posts (see
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EOTS posts here. Sign up to receive notices of new postings here.)<br>
Posted August 27, 2020, at 3:56 p.m. EDT.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/climate-change-is-causing-more-rapid-intensification-of-atlantic-hurricanes/">https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/climate-change-is-causing-more-rapid-intensification-of-atlantic-hurricanes/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[The Trouble - ]<br>
<b>The Strategic Case for Animal Liberation</b><br>
Ecosocialists view animal rights as the third rail of climate
politics. The opposite is true...<br>
Dayton Martindale - August 28, 2020<br>
<br>
For many on the left, even those sympathetic, animal advocacy simply
isn't a high priority. But if the climate left does not start
engaging seriously with animal politics, we will be caught
flat-footed in some of the most important debates of the coming
decades, . Two dilemmas will inevitably arise: first, in confronting
the meat question, and second, in wildlife conservation: the
potential conflicts between climate action and endangered species,
climate impacts on biodiversity, and the role of protecting and
restoring habitat in sequestering carbon. <br>
<br>
The pandemic illustrates the consequences of sidelining these
issues. Most infectious diseases, COVID-19 among them, first reach
humans through contact with other animals; habitat disruption and
animal farming thus play key roles in the spread and mutation of
disease. <br>
- -<br>
This narrative may be better for humans, too. Scholars of feminism,
critical race theory and disability studies have all explored how
the material and ideological infrastructure of human supremacy also
reinforces other social hierarchies; all of our liberation, they
argue, may be intertwined.<br>
<br>
Of course, not everyone will agree. Some indigenous groups, for
instance, offer worldviews that reject both human supremacy and
veganism, and these views must be taken seriously. (Though as vegan
Mi'kmaq scholar Margaret Robinson observes, "There is no view on
animals that is shared by all Aboriginal people." ) And many, for
health or other reasons, cannot immediately stop eating animals,
though much of this could be addressed through structural changes to
the food system. Policy, ideology, and personal consumption, can
work in a positive feedback loop, each reinforcing transformations
in the others.<br>
<br>
Climate organizations need Zoom book clubs to discuss ideas, working
groups to develop policies, principles, and strategies on justice
for nonhuman animals. Groups can invite local animal rights
organizations to actions and meetings to generate good will and
begin the cross-pollination of ideas, broadening our coalition.<br>
<br>
We can fight harder for the political changes we already agree
on--an end to factory farming, stronger protection of endangered
species, funding to make healthy, sustainably grown produce more
widespread and accessible to all. We can organize with
slaughterhouse workers and animal farmers against their abusive
corporate bosses, for a just transition and green jobs guarantee.
And we can try to start consciously thinking of the nonhuman animals
in our lives--from the dogs in our homes to the pigeons on the
street to the deer in the woods--not as objects but subjects, fellow
travelers through an uncertain era whose desires for food, shelter,
companionship, and freedom may not be that different from our own.<br>
<br>
Dayton Martindale is a writer and founding member of the Democratic
Socialists of America Animal Liberation Working Group. His work has
appeared in In These Times, Earth Island Journal, Boston Review,
Harbinger and The Next System Project. Follow him on Twitter:
@DaytonRMartind. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.the-trouble.com/content/2020/8/28/the-strategic-case-for-animal-liberation">https://www.the-trouble.com/content/2020/8/28/the-strategic-case-for-animal-liberation</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
August 29, 2005 </b></font><br>
In a Huffington Post piece, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notes the irony of
Hurricane Katrina assaulting the Gulf Coast just a few years after
the Bush administration decided to give preferential treatment to
the fossil fuel industry with regard to energy policy.<br>
<blockquote>Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Contributor<br>
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Senior Attorney, NRDC<br>
<b>"For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind"</b><br>
As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi's Gulf Coast, it's
worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley
Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing
President Bush's iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.<br>
<br>
In March of 2001, just two days after EPA Administrator Christie
Todd Whitman's strong statement affirming Bush's CO2 promise
former RNC Chief Barbour responded with an urgent memo to the
White House.<br>
<br>
Barbour, who had served as RNC Chair and Bush campaign strategist,
was now representing the president's major donors from the fossil
fuel industry who had enlisted him to map a Bush energy policy
that would be friendly to their interests. His credentials
ensured the new administration's attention.<br>
<br>
The document, titled "Bush-Cheney Energy Policy & CO2," was
addressed to Vice President Cheney, whose energy task force was
then gearing up, and to several high-ranking officials with strong
connections to energy and automotive concerns keenly interested in
the carbon dioxide issue, including Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Commerce Secretary Don
Evans, White House chief of staff Andy Card and legislative
liaison Nick Calio. Barbour pointedly omitted the names of
Whitman and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, both of whom were on
record supporting CO2 caps. Barbour's memo chided these
administration insiders for trying to address global warming which
Barbour dismissed as a radical fringe issue.<br>
<br>
"A moment of truth is arriving," Barbour wrote, "in the form of a
decision whether this Administration's policy will be to regulate
and/or tax CO2 as a pollutant. The question is whether
environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with
Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore." He derided the idea of
regulating CO2 as "eco-extremism," and chided them for allowing
environmental concerns to "trump good energy policy, which the
country has lacked for eight years."<br>
<br>
The memo had impact. "It was terse and highly effective, written
for people without much time by a person who controls the purse
strings for the Republican Party," said John Walke, a high-ranking
air quality official in the Clinton administration.<br>
<br>
On March 13, Bush reversed his previous position, announcing he
would not back a CO2 restriction using the language and rationale
provided by Barbour. Echoing Barbour's memo, Bush said he opposed
mandatory CO2 caps, due to "the incomplete state of scientific
knowledge" about global climate change.<br>
<br>
Well, the science is clear. This month, a study published in the
journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the
increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced
global warming.<br>
<br>
Now we are all learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind of
fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have
encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic
war in the Middle East and--now--Katrina is giving our nation a
glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.<br>
<br>
In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were
likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was
Barbour's memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare
New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi
coast. [UPDATE: Alas, the reprieve for New Orleans was only
temporary. But Haley Barbour still has much to answer for.]<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/for-they-that-sow-the-win_b_6396.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/for-they-that-sow-the-win_b_6396.html</a>
<br>
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