May 24, 2006
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Climate Change
The image of Katrina comes from a NASA project that visualizes all the named storms of 2005 in a movie. You can watch it here. The red ocean represents water that is warmer than 86f. If you watch Dennis and Katrina go through the Gulf, you'll see them leave behind a trail of blue. Hurricanes eat water temperature like Pac Man eating dots.
Comments (11)
Sorry, Dude, it's never over. As long as we're capable of believing what isn't true there will be no end to debate in any of its obnoxious forms.
Holy crap, that is fascinating! Thanks for the link to the videos.
Yes, they do. A hurricane is really a massive heat engine.
pretty cool..... I should make a similar video for the weather out here. Should be easy... just a big red square.
Wait, who thinks the debate about climate change is over just because of compelling evidence? Proof never won a political argument before. Whoops, first comment beat me to it. Oh well, it bears repeating.
Actually, I think almost everyone acknowledges that the climate is in fact changing; they just argue about whether it's caused by greenhouse gases, or by other human behavior, or by a completely natural phenomenon. I'm completely ignorant of the subject, but based on what I've heard...
There's debate over whether humans are really really really REALLY responsible for it, or merely really really responsible for it.
And it's not a political argument. It's not even an argument. Everybody knows what has to change.
Still, hurricanes are *not* the kind of evidence you want to nail down the theory with. Really. We've had accurate information on the phenomena for less than thirty years-- a span so piddly natural history can blink and miss it. I'd go with glaciers, dendrochronology, frost records... anything but hurricanes.
The above graphic doesn't attempt to 'nail down the theory,' since, as it says, the theory's not up for debate. What's unspoken in the graphic is the fact that the storm you're looking at destroyed a major city, killing thousands, and stalling 1/3rd of the US economy for weeks. Katrina is the poster child for the destructive nature of climate change.
Yes, but climate change wasn't the principle agent in that disaster. Population density was. We have almost certainly had storms of equal power in the Gulf of Mexico within recorded history (the '35 storm comes to mind)-- they just haven't managed to hit major population centers. Because, well, a helluva lot more people *live* along the Gulf Coast now. I mean, the entire state of FL was mostly inhospitable wilderness until Flagler came along (1920s?), and population didn't really start to rise until decades later (specifically, not until after home air conditioning got reasonably cheap). Katrina just doesn't work as a shining example of climatological disaster, imo. It was a confluence of nasty things-- money, engineering, bureacracy, geography, climate, blind chance... and it still doesn't hold a candle to the Galveston hurricane a century ago.
The problems we will face from climate change are: Money, engineering, bureaucracy, geography, climate, blind chance... Does this list look familiar? The point here is that more of the same and worse will be forthcoming. Climate change (and you did list climate as one of the confluence of things in Katrina) makes all these things worse.
The graphic sends us down a number of interesting rhetorical paths, which is why I chose it. For instance: Sea level change is inevitable, and we'll see New Orleans flood again if we don't slow it down. And those displaced will become refugees, and where will we put them? Not every nearby city has an Astrodome to fill up. It'll be the same set of problems, only ongoing and more severe.
If there were satellite images of the 1900 hurricane, I'd have used that. You'll recall that Galveston was rebuilt by dredging up the bay and raising the island 18 feet. In the mean time, its economic power dwindled as business moved to the nearby port of Houston, ironically using the channel dredged up to raise the island. This is the kind of economic chaos that will get more protracted as the climate changes more.
Change is the only constant? (can't think of anything to add)
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