More on Global Warming

This is a good time to repeat my rant on Global Warming after taking on Oregon State climatologist, George Taylor, yesterday. For starters Mr Taylor is dead wrong, global warming is happening, it's here now. While there are plenty of good reasons to reduce carbon emissions an attempt to stop global warming is not one of them. Not because they don't contribute but because it's too late. It's here, Allstate Insurance Company knows.
Reeling from last year's hurricane season, Allstate to cut almost 100,000 residential policies

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Still reeling from last year's hurricane season, Allstate Insurance said it will not renew about 100,000 insurance policies in Florida and plans to gradually discontinue most commercial property coverage in the state.

Most of the Florida peninsula is less than 25 feet above sea level. Long before sea level actually rises enough to cover the peninsula strong hurricanes will make it uninhabitable. Warm water is what feeds hurricanes and global warming is first seen in the water.
Global Warming and Hurricanes

The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth's climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although we cannot say at present whether more or fewer hurricane will occur in the future with global warming, the hurricanes that do occur near the end of the 21st century are expected to be stronger and have significantly more intense rainfall than under present day climate conditions. This expectation is based on an anticipated enhancement of energy available to the storms due to higher tropical sea surface temperatures.

And it won't be just Florida.
Hurricane Risk to New Orleans

"The hurricane is spinning counter-clockwise, it's now got a wall of water in front of it some 30 to 40 feet high, as it approaches the levees that surround the city, it tops those levees," describes Maestri. "The water comes over the top - and first the communities on the west side of the Mississippi river go under. Now Lake Ponchetrain which is on the eastern side of the community now that water from Lake Ponchetrain is now pushed on the population that is fleeing from the western side, and everybody's caught in the middle. The bowl now completely fills and we've got the entire community under water, some 20 to 30 feet under water."

It is estimated that 20 to 100 thousand people would die. New Orleans would not be rebuilt.

It is time to start thinking about how we are going to adjust to the inevitable global warming instead of talking about halting it. Millions of people are living where they won't be able to live much longer. And it's not just the Gulf of Mexico. The drought in the desert southwest will only get worse. The gulf stream will weaken if not stop altogether making much of Europe and the northeastern United States much colder. The list goes on. Global warming is here and it's too late to stop it, assuming that was ever possible. Adapt or die, it's a choice we have to start thinking about now.

And we are witnessing some of this right now.
Hurricane Katrina gains power in Gulf, moves west

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina gained power over warm Gulf of Mexico waters and revved up for a second and potentially more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after a slow and punishing trek across southern Florida that killed seven people.

By 8 a.m. (12000 GMT) on Saturday, the hurricane was 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with winds near 115 mph (185 kph).

The storm was larger and more powerful than when it hit Florida's southeast coast on Thursday and was expected to swing gradually west-northwest, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

The projected path could see it come ashore anywhere between the storm-scarred Florida Panhandle and the Louisiana coast west of the low-lying and vulnerable city of New Orleans. U.S. oil and gas rigs are potentially in its path.

Computer models pointed to a more westerly track, putting Katrina ashore on Monday near the Louisiana-Mississippi border.

"That's bad news for New Orleans and better news for us," said Florida's top meteorologist, Ben Nelson.