In 2006 the world saw a major hurricane that caused arguable the greatest damage to human wealth in the history of mankind. United States bore the brunt of anger and venom unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and while people who have been struck by the tragedy are still recovering from it, rest of the world is seriously starting to ponder about tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons.

What are typhoons?

Image courtesy of ruei_ke

While all of the just differ in name because as a race we still are unable to come to common conclusions, typhoons are just intense tropical storms that occur in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. That line is demarcated by the International Date Line and the equator. The word typhoon seems to have many origins and all of them date back to ancient Greece and the Greek god of winds- Typhon. Subsequently different languages and nations across the planet have adopted different altered versions of the name.

A tropical cyclone is classified as a typhoon when formed in the North-West Pacific region, measures above 10 on Beaufort scale and has wind speeds of above 55 mph. In short, it is a scary, wet windy depression that causes immense destruction if and when it does hit land in full fury.

What causes Typhoons?

Image courtesy of PhillipC

What causes typhoons is a question that has been puzzling the best scientific minds across the planet since long and while we do have substantial understanding of the basic conditions that facilitate a typhoon, exact reasons still are unknown.

Warm water surface is the basic reason for the formation of the low pressure area. Warm waters surrounded by cold conditions inevitably create low pressure and unstable atmosphere above them. Water temperatures of at least 26.5 °C (79.7 °F) are needed down to a depth of at least 50 meters to start a typhoon.

Next is the abundant supply of water around the eye of the storm, ensuring that high humidity will fuel the typhoon constantly helping it grow in size. This is a giant that needs to feed constantly on water. Typhoons also need to maintain a distance of at least 5 degrees north of the equator to sustain and develop. Considering all the conditions needed for their formations, one would imagine that typhoons and tropical cyclones would be a rare occurrence. But off late, that seems not to be the case. Why is it so?

Impact of global warming on typhoons

So by now the general school of thought is that the petty environmentalists are willing to blame global warming for everything and anything that changes in the world climate pattern. The fact though is that whether you like it or not, growing carbon emissions and global warming are having significant impact on formation of typhoons.

The basic condition for a typhoon to come alive is warm waters and with growing global temperature and melting polar ice caps, that would not be too hard to find in years to come. This along with irregular weather patterns and dry drought conditions on land increase chances of typhoons.

According to a UN report, tropical cyclones will grow both in number and intensity in the coming century because of variant global climate patterns caused by both human and natural causes. With no known and proven method to tackle typhoons (except evacuation when a warning is issued), one can expect more scenarios like Hurricane Katrina if our luck goes bad and more of these hit land. Let’s just hope they stay away from heavily populated areas…

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Temperatures have dipped to Arctic levels in Minneapolis. A snowstorm followed. People died from exposure. Even Kansas (you’re not in Kansas anymore) and Missouri dropped to single digits (-15Cish). At one place, Hallock, wind chill was -58 below.

I have been in the bitter cold before, changed a tire at -25C and saw ice sculptures in Northern China at the same temperatures. Seems to me that at some point, cold is just cold.

Still, the weather service says that skin left out in -40F for 10 minutes will freeze. That can’t be fun.

Snow storms are rocking the MidWest as well.

Meanwhile, where I live in sunny Northern California, we had record highs in San Francisco and Oakland for the day BEFORE the sun came up.

My bet is that my midwestern far neighbors are wondering – “Where’s global warming when you need it?”

There is a point beyond which you cannot trample with the mightily patient Mother earth. She has taken everything that has been thrown at her and has tried to balance the planet and keep it up and running by making tiny adjustments and giving us gentle jolts once in a while. But when the planet that you call home is heading towards a chaotic order, then she has to step in at some point to wipe out the infestation and set the record straight.

Image courtesy of Roberto Rizzato

With the way man has been destroying delicate balance of natural ecosystems and causing a steep rise in the global temperatures, global warming seems to be the cause that will one day bring about a catastrophic end to much of human race, much like nature put dinosaurs in their place millions of years ago. And when you have Nobel Laureates and the best minds in the world talking about how bad the situation is, then it is hard to dismiss it away.

This is why GP has compiled a list with what we believe to be the 15 most deadly effects of global warming. (more…)

The Japan Meteorological Agency has some new global warming statistics. According to the agency, the pace of global warming appears to be slowing.

“The average temperature in the world in 2008 registering a rise of 0.2 degree Celsius compared with the average rise between 1971 and 2000.”

Even so, it was the 10th largest margin of increase from benchmark average established in 1891.

The slow down was attributed to the La Nina phenomenon. This year’s margin of increase was the lowest since 2001. Japan’s margin was .44 C lower than last year.

JMA computes the averages of 1,200 locations throughout the world and compares it to wherever historical data are available.

My bet is that people living in the NorthEast of the US would like to get a little more out of the global warming monster these days, if they could, eh?

Source: Breitbart
Image: Grey glacier, Lago Grey in Patagonia. By Steve Deger

Whenever there is a scientific theory or even an assumption, the most obvious effect of it, is the appearance of the skeptics. It is such people who have always maintained that the humans as a race were over-reacting to the phenomenon of ‘global warming’ and that it was just a natural cycle of the Earth that was causing climate changes.

But scientists have now proved beyond any doubt that the climate change at the poles is indeed because of human activities and our impact on the planet.

Using four computer models and data from dozens of weather stations sited around both the North and South Poles, the scientists were able to prove that the climatic change at the poles is so great that there is no way any natural model of climate change will account for such steep increase in polar temperatures.

The polar ice has been melting at a rate that is far higher than normal and in the last two years we have seen for the first time ever, that the Arctic Circle and North Pole kind of melts into an Island. The temperature even in Antarctica have been on the rise and while the Ozone depletion helped reverse the heating effect for a while, it’s now replenished and will increase the temperatures even further.

While there has been no doubt in the minds of many that human activity was indeed destroying the poles, this now proves the theory beyond doubt. The melting sea ice in the Arctic and the increasing temperatures in the Antarctic are all further proof of how much we need to cut down on pollution before we get sniffed out due to our own over-indulgence.

Images by 1, 2

Global warming is one phenomenon that has pretty much grown into the biggest demon the planet is trying to get off of its back and not too surprisingly, we have not been all that successful till today.

Despite growing concerns over how the greenhouse gases must be controlled and their volume curbed, it seems the progress is either too slow or even non existent for many developing nations. Europe though is at the forefront of this movement and it is interesting to take a look at the radical few new ways that UK’s Royal Society has come up with to deal with the rising temperature.

1) Methods proposed by scientists at the Royal Society include using trillions of space ship mirrors that hover around the earth and create a shield that reflects the sunlight and forms a heat shield of sorts.

2) Then there is the idea of spraying ocean water into the atmosphere to which will increase salt content in the clouds and make them whiter. This would also act on the principle of reflecting light.

3) The most acceptable method seems to be increasing iron content in oceans which would encourage growth of algae and absorption of carbon gases. But such a method could cause havoc to the marine ecosystem.

The methods stated by John Shepherd, chairman of the Royal Society and his team of scientists are all still just secondary plan and the scientists themselves admit that our major goal must be to reduce greenhouse gases. That should make the priorities clear for all reluctant nations who still think of economic impact above environment effects.

By the way; ’spaceships with mirrors’… What is this, Fifth grade?

Image courtesy of Enzo D.

Prince Charles is in Tokyo urging the world to fight climate change saying that,

“Given the current turbulence in the international financial system and the immediate and damaging effect it is having on the whole world, the credit crunch is rightly a preoccupation of vast significance and importance.

But we take our eye off the ‘climate crunch’ at our peril.”

The Prince thinks that the earth’s temps could rise by more than 6C by 2100, citing UN scientists. He didn’t mention, however, that the scientists aren’t sure what the temps will be next week. Elephants could fall out of airplanes, too.

I think the climate is changing. I think that we ought to be responsible stewards of Earth. I also think that there isn’t a whole lot we can do to change the weather cycles.

It’s kind of like giving $700 billion to Neel Kashkari and expecting him to change the tide of the world’s economies. That didn’t work either.

Image courtesy of petecarr

Corals at the Great Barrier Reef are soaking up carbon dioxide at new levels say researchers. As a result, the corals may (operative word) be accelerating bleaching and some might (operative word) be destroyed by 2050.

I say operative word because the actual effect is not known and the ultimate outcome is still very much everyone’s best guess. Could, maybe, might, perhaps… When the scientists say will, have been proven to, and did, I’ll listen.

Indeed, I’ll say it yet again – Let’s be good stewards of our Planet. Let’s treat Earth as if it is the only home we will ever have. Let’s be responsible. Let’s be thrifty. But, not because the climate is changing. That’s what the climate does.

We are all aware by now of the effects of global warming which is soon to cause a major hazard to the earth. Unless and until we make efforts to stop or reduce greenhouse emissions we are to witness a complete shift in the ecological balance.

According to David Jones the head of climate analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology the severe droughts affecting the south-west Western Australia, south-east South Australia, Victoria and northern Tasmania have been the worst in centuries.

The temperatures are higher than the normal drought, showing a degree that clearly tells us that global warming has begun to take its toll.

Jones also specifies that every one degree of warming will decrease the runoff water by 15%. Rainfall has been close to nil for a long time now. If we do not act fast we will witness the destruction of our earth in front of our very own eyes. – via ClimateProgess

Image via Georgie Sharp

In a previous post I wrote Beijing was planing to artificially change the weather for the Olympics if they needed to. Good news, I suppose, they won’t have to. How do you say “whew!” in Chinese, I wonder? The forecast will be overcast (smog?) but no rain is expected according to the China Meterological Administration. A shower in the afternoon and temps from 25-30C (78-86F).

Some 100,000 people, athletes and fans, are expected to be in the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) on Friday for the opening ceremony. Moderate rain is expected over the weekend. Won’t matter, I suppose, early events in the Olympics are indoors – swimming, basketball and such.

Weather forecasts will be broadcast every hour, 24 hours in advance. Four satellites will check out the clouds every 15 minutes, and 186 weather stations will gather data every 5 minutes. There are also seven fixed Doppler radar stations and two mobile stations. All this to tell us it’s going to rain, or not, be hot or not. And, then what?

Can you say overkill?

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