One week after Hurricane Michael, more than 1,000 people are still missing. At least 27 people have lost their lives.
Fourteen-foot storm surges. Tens of thousands of people unable to evacuate. Apalachicola underwater. Buildings collapsing in Panama City. Mexico Beach obliterated. RVs tossed through the air like toys, roofs peeled off motels and houses like sardine-can lids, toxic coal ash dumps threatening to breach and release arsenic, mercury, and lead into waterways.
James, with communities leveled, residents are still sheltering in schools, community centers, even state parks. We must push resources to local Florida and Alabama partners like Florida People’s Advocacy Center, Apalachicola Riverkeeper, and Mobile Baykeeper—now working on relief and recovery. Please, rush whatever you can spare to help community groups working around the clock to save our neighbors.
Michael was the strongest hurricane in history—since record keeping began in 1851—to hit the Florida panhandle. The storm’s peak winds upon landfall were the fourth-highest on record for the continental United States and reached a jaw-dropping 155 MPH.
What’s especially frustrating is that Michael’s intensity took forecasters by surprise—giving residents very little time to evacuate—because of climate change. Warm waters cause storms to accelerate and intensify to dangerous levels quickly—a pattern we saw with Hurricane Harvey in 2017, then Florence and now Michael.
This means we have to help those in Michael’s path now, in case another storm comes along and saps precious resources and human capital—especially in communities of color and in low-lying areas most at risk for flooding, contamination and disease.
Our thoughts and love go out to everyone affected by this truly catastrophic storm. We hope your loved ones are safe. And to everyone who stood with our hurricane-struck neighbors, thank you.
Sincerely,
Frank Jackalone
Director
Sierra Club Florida Chapter
As a steward of trying to bring more awareness to people about global warming and protecting our environment, seeing and smelling, the Red Tide Algae in Florida, is particularly bothersome.
THE FIRST THING you notice is the smell. It’s not a scent, exactly, but a tingling in the nose that quickly spreads to the throat and burns the lungs. But then you see the carcasses.
I moved to Florida 10 years ago to enjoy the Florida beaches, but have seen first hand how Red Tide has gotten worse over the years. In the past, hurricanes such as Katrina, Irma, etc. were thought to add to the problem, but actually, we need some sort of tropical weather system to churn up the waters. This would potentially mix up and move toxins, if only temporarily. It’s ironic to think about a hurricane actually benefitting Florida, after the many disasters the Sunshine State has witnessed over the years. However, a weak system could actually be beneficial to Florida.
RED TIDE–“It’s killing sea life, battering our economy and making people sick,” says a recent Florida TV ad. “Red tide continues to devastate our area. And many feel it’s fair to blame Rick Scott.” The blame assertion is lifted from an Orlando Sentinel editorial, which appears on screen.
Please see a most recent TV ad and how once again the Florida legislature is more concerned with money in their pockets and big business, rather than helping the environment
COULD A TROPICAL STORM CLEAN UP THE RED TIDE?
In a study I did last May, I was one of the first to predict a pretty inactive hurricane season this year, due to a combination of cooler Atlantic ocean temperatures, compared to last year; a possible weak El Nino developing and African dust that could hurt hurricane activity. The oceans are presently warming a bit more than the 1994 analog (below), so the hurricane season will start perking up. Nevertheless, the odds of a major hurricane hitting Florida or the Gulf coast this fall, is greatly reduced, compared to last year’s devastating season. That’s of course a good thing.
Come late fall and winter, however, when we begin to see occasional cool fronts come in from the north, this would more likely “ease” the Red Tide problem. The longer it takes to get a tropical system to hit Florida, or a major cool front to come down from the north, the longer the Red Tide problem could remain along Flordia’s west coast costing billions of dollars to the Sunshine State’s tourism.
CLIMATECH’S HURRICANE FORECAST MADE IN MAY FOR AN INACTIVE SEASON
How Can Red Tide be Mitigated? History
In Florida, Mote Marine scientists have been developing a patented system to mitigate the red tide’s toxic effects. It uses the highly reactive molecule ozone—which is composed of a trio of oxygen atoms—to destroy all organic compounds, including algae and brevetoxins, while oxygenating the water. They’ve successfully tested the system in a 25,000-gallon tank and are now prepping for a pilot project in a local canal, clarifying around 600,000 gallons of water.
For now, however, scientists are continuing to monitor the blooms in Florida, hoping eventually to be able to forecast these events. But the death toll continues to climb. “Wildlife is kind of the proverbial canary in the coal mine,” says CROW’s Barron. “And right now, the canary just died.
RED TIDE and its History
Red tide is a phenomenon caused by algal blooms (Wikipedia definition) during which algae become so numerous that they discolor coastal waters (hence the name “red tide”). The algal bloom may also deplete oxygen in the waters and/or release toxins that may cause illness in humans and other animals.
Spanish explorers documented seeing it back in the 1500s. However, it remained poorly understood until a scientist named Karen Steidinger of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg spent decades putting it under her microscope. In tribute, scientists renamed the species to honor her, changing Gymnodinium breve to Karenia brevis.
Major factors influencing red tide events include warm ocean surface temperatures, low salinity, high nutrient content, calm seas, and rain followed by sunny days during the summer months . In addition, algae related to red tide can spread or be carried long distances by winds, currents, storms, or ships.
Another factor is likely that phosphorous levels in the lake are high. This is due to back-pumping water from sugar cane farms to the south. Then, due to a high amount of debris from Hurricane Irma in all lakes, rivers, and estuaries, oxygen levels in freshwater bodies have dropped. This causes levels of iron to increase in the water running off into the Florida coast. Both nutrients, phosphorous and iron, can cultivate algae like red tide
Recent decades have brought intense blooms to Florida. A particularly bad bloom came in 1947. The brevetoxins in the air were so thick, the residents of Naples, Florida, thought armed forces had poured nerve gas into the Gulf—an observation that helped scientists discover the algae’s irritating fumes.
Charlotte and Lee counties are experiencing some of the highest concentrations of red tide in recent memory, and it’s creeping north into Sarasota. Facebook videos of dead manatees and sea turtles have gone viral, but dying gamefish like snook and endangered redfish scare Greer most.
Presently, roughly 20 million algal cells color this swath of red that recently lingered off of Florida’s southwest coast. The red tide began in October 2017, and there are no signs that the toxic plume will lift anytime soon. But the problem is not limited to Florida alone, there seems to be a global expansion of these harmful blooms, with China waters seeing a huge increase the last few years.
IS GLOBAL WARMING ACCELERATING THE PROBLEM?
There is much debate on exactly “what is causing these blooms to expand.” I am a firm believer that climate change is one of the culprits. This is because these toxins thrive in warmer waters. Of course, increasing nutrient runoff is also a major issue due to the sugar industry around Lake Okeechobee and the rapid housing boom along the Florida coast. Decades of nutrient pollution mixed with heavy rainfall and warm temperatures helped create toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee. At one point this year, blue-green algae covered 90 percent of the lake.
In a controversial study in 2008, University of Miami scientists Larry Brand and Angela Compton examined the last 50 years of dataon K. brevis blooms, reporting that between 1994 and 2002, the blooms were 13 to 18 times more abundant than those striking from 1954 to 1963.
For a great source for more information about Red Tide, please visit here
Information below is from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Mote Marine Laboratory was used in this report.
Does Red Tide Affects Humans?
Yes, although not with such finality. The latest state report shows people at beaches from Sarasota to Naples reporting breathing problems as a result of encountering the Red Tide bloom. Usually the toxins cause only mild irritation and coughing, but they can produce serious problems for people with asthma and other respiratory problems. Health officials advise against eating shellfish from Red Tide areas because the toxins can accumulate in their bodies, poisoning humans.
Is it OK to eat seafood right now?
Most seafood restaurants aren’t serving fish and crustaceans that were caught locally, so you’ll be fine. If you want to eat a fish you caught yourself, be careful. Make sure it’s alive when you reel it in. Only eat the muscle tissue of the fish, nothing else.
Can I go swimming in the Red Tide?
If you can get past all the coughing and wheezing and dead fish floating in the water, sure! Most people don’t develop the skin irritation that bothers a few who swim through the algae bloom. However, you should be sure to shower off thoroughly when you’re done.
Can I still take my dog for a walk on the beach?
Yes, but don’t let Fido play with any dead fish or foam on the beach, and give him a thorough rinse with freshwater when he’s done — before he gets in your car, not after.
Should we find a way to destroy all algae in the ocean so we can avoid having this happen again?
No. Most blooms are beneficial because the tiny plants serve as food for animals in the ocean. They are the major source of energy in the ocean food web.
Some photos and excerpts from National Geographic, June 2018
If plastic had been invented when the Mayflower carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic Ocean, their trash would still be with us today. Ocean waves and sunlight would have decomposed plastic bottles, packaging and other containers into microscopic bits. In this day and age, a pair of tourist love birds in Hawaii, taking a romantic evening stroll along the beach, are quite apt to make a “snap, crackle and pop” sound with their feet. And it ain’t from walking on Rice Krispies! They are hearing plastic bits.
IMAGE: Free plug for Kellogg’s
Celluloid, the compound considered to be the first man-made plastic, was invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1856. This was during a rush by innovators to win a $10,000 prize. This jackpot was offered by Michael Phelan, a maker of billiards tables and equipment in New York City. Phelan was hoping to find an alternative for making billiard balls. He wanted something cheaper than elephant ivory. According to slate.com – “The average number of billiard balls that could be obtained from a single tusk was three.” As the video shows, this was done with a lathe, and there were a lot of imperfect rejects. How vervloekt wasteful was that?!?!? (Please, pardon my Dutch.)
The motivation for this search was mostly economic, but historians have found that there were some concerns about the slaughter of these creatures, but it wasn’t about animal rights. The concern was for the hunters at risk of being trampled by a disastrous stampeding herd of panic stricken pachyderms. Little did anyone realize that Hyatt’s discovery would lead to a global environmental disaster. His celluloid was the precursor to fully synthetic plastic, patented in1907. By the way, Hyatt did not win the $10,000 (about $3Million in today’s money)… he merely opened Pandora’s Box, instead.
IMAGE:
Michael Phelan’s billiards saloon, corner of 10th Street and Broadway in New York City, 1859.
(New York Public Library, Wikimedia Commons)
World production of plastics has increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950, to almost 500 million tons per day.
Plastic bits are responsible for killing millions of marine animals every year. Plastic is very difficult to dispose of and the solution must be more land fills and greater recycling measures. Plastic decomposes from sunlight, and newly evolved microbes consume it. They have been mixed with chemicals and are being found in more and more fish throughout our oceans and lakes. This will likely pose a great health hazard in the years to come.
Marine biologists are extensively dissecting fish only to find micro-plastics in the guts of almost one-third of all ocean species.
IMAGE: NOT a free plug for the companies that make this stuff! Hey, and this goes for you consumers too!
Sure, we all want clean ears, but, JEEZ! Please buy the cotton swabs with the stick made of paper…OK?
This has been a sustainable planet service announcement… now to continue with our blog…
I am shouting it out here!
I am stressing a call to action for my readers!
Please, do take this global threat seriously!
One organization you can become involved with, to learn more about our “threatened oceans” and to find out how you can help, is Plastic Oceans.
Food security will continue to be a major global issue. Unfortunately, it is human nature to ignore a pending catastrophe until it is almost too late. Another great group is the Rainforest Alliance.
As a commodity trader, I usually see a chart like this and want to “buy the heck out of” whatever it is. However, in this case, I wish I could urge a posse of hedge fund billionaires to “short the sh*t out of” the companies, and industries, who are responsible for this unconscionable “rally” — Thus endeth my tirade and my sermon — Peace!
James Roemer
Sarasota, FL
This blog was produced by Scott Mathews.
Afterthought about walking on the beach of plastic bits
In the interest of being more “global” — Here is Wikipedia’s citation of how to say Snap! Crackle! Pop! in other languages:
…and, here is what the early Rolling Stones had to say about it…
And, on a parting note. Here is an evocative shot of the tragedy:
When I saw this surfer in the trash , I could not help but think about a silly novelty song from 1963, that was the final #1 hit on the radio in New York before the Beatles started to own that slot.
This YouTube video has 16 Million views. The clip is from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand,
There is no place on earth that has witnessed the perils of Climate Change, worse than Australia. In the last 5 years there have been several summers during which day time high temperatures climbed well over 110°F in some locations. This year, what was supposed to be a relatively wet and normal summer has turned out to be a devastating drought for parts of the country. Historically, weak La Niñas tend to bring beneficial rains to cotton and grain fields. In my opinion, Climate Change and the meteorological phenomenon known as a positive Indian Dipole, has trumped that idea. Most computer models have the Indian Dipole going negative during the next few months. This would bring an increase in rain and end the recent drought. However, warming oceans in the Arabian Sea (west of India) could prevent this “blessing” from happening.
Many young people in Australia have been “let down” by some adults, politicians and the media who have apparently neglected the issue of Climate Change. To read a story about one Australian teacher’s challenge in educating her students about this topic, please read here.
Here is an excerpt — “I consider myself an innovative and engaging teacher, and looked forward to the project. It took me only the one class to realise the challenge would be a difficult one. What I discovered in speaking to students was that while they were in no way “anti-science”, headline-grabbing climate change scepticism had impacted on their faith in their own ability to understand science, highlighting what I’ve always believed to be the motivation of sceptics: the undermining of our own confidence to think and grasp ideas. It also took me little time to realize that, in general, the students felt badly let down by some adults…who they felt had neglected an issue that would soon impact negatively on their adult lives. There were moments when I felt that the project was about to fail, until I was walking along the banks of the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne’s western suburbs and came up with an idea. I began that morning’s class with a simple prompt: ‘Tell me about your river.’ ”
AUSTRALIA’S WEATHER — Made up of extremes for thousands of years
Australia has always been shaped by floods, droughts, and blistering heat. How big and how intense these events were was poorly understood due to the limited record of historical observations. However, new scientific evidence is now coming to light!
Some extraordinary contrasting climatic events have battered Australia for millennia. Are recent extreme events really worse than those in the past? There has been an ongoing debate about whether these recent weather extremes are just part of the chronicles of normal historical cycles, or linked Climate Change.
Historical records provide rough estimates of the extent and intensity of droughts in parts of Australia since the late 1700s. For example, captains’ logbooks from ships anchored off Sydney describe the Settlement Drought (1790-1793). This protracted event threatened the tenuous foothold of early European settlers on the continent. In addition, farmers’ records describe the Goyder Line Drought (1861–1866) that occurred in northern areas north.
Observational weather records provide more detailed descriptions of climatic variability. However, systematic recording of weather in Australia only began in the late 19th century. Since then, many parts of the continent have experienced prolonged wet periods and droughts. The most well known of these are the Federation drought (1895-1903), the World War II drought (1939-45), and the recent Millennium drought (1997-2009).
All three events were devastating to agriculture and the broader economy, but each was distinct in its spatial footprint, duration, and intensity. Importantly, these droughts also differed in seasonality.
In a recent paper, 800 years of seasonal rainfall patterns were reconstructed across the Australian continent. Records show that parts of Northern Australia are wetter than ever before, and that major droughts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in southern Australia are likely without precedent over the past 400 years. This new knowledge gives a clearer understanding of how droughts and flooding rains may be changing in the context of a rapidly warming world.
Here are a few excerpts from the recent study about “historical shifts in Australia’s rainfall and temperature patterns” never recorded before in the history of mankind. This seems to offer strong proof that Climate Change is to blame for the continent’s changing climatic landscape–
“Our new study used an extensive network of tree rings, ice cores, corals, and sediment records from across Australia and the adjacent Indian and Pacific Oceans to extend rainfall records across all of the major regions of the country by between 400 and 800 years. Importantly, we did this for two seasons, the cool (April–September) season and warm (October–March) season, over eight large natural resource management regions spanning the Australian continent. This allows us to place recent observations of rainfall variability into a much longer context across the entire continent for the first time.”
The topic of Climate Change will bring about greater food, water and national security issues, not only in Australia, but across the planet.
In a final study that I found, new scientific research sheds a strange light, yet a fascinating one, about a possible link between Australian rainfall and sea salt deposits in Antarctic ice. However, these seem to suggest that present day man-made global warming could have a much greater influence on rainfall patterns in Australia that what was observed hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. For that article, please see here
“Last month, a huge swath of Southern California was on fire. Now, with heavy rain imminent, local residents are holding their breath in anticipation of what might happen next. Many people are hoping for rain to break a multi-level drought, so how can rains result in such a disaster? The reason has to do with the fact that California soils have been so dry, it is no longer porous. Hence, the absorbent quality of the sizzled land deteriorates causing “massive run off” of rain water.”
“Officials in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties have instituted mandatory evacuations in anticipation of the latest weather calamity in a besieged stretch of the state. The same residents that were, until recently, blanketed with wildfire smoke are now filling sandbags to prepare for a flood.” – Pacific Standard (psgmag.com)
Many of the world’s “leading scientists” are attributing hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and more recently, the 110 degree heat in Australia, forest fires and now floods and mudslides in California to Climate Change. I believe that at least “part” of last year’s record $306 billion in U.S. natural disasters can be attributed to Climate Change. This number is only growing.
(Map below). Over the next two weeks, at least three storms will deliver 4″ to 6” of rainfall to northern and central California. Parts of the Pacific northwest could see 10″ to 15” of rain. This could translate into 5 to 10 feet of snow for the Cascades and at least a few feet from the Lake Tahoe region to ski areas like Snowbird in Utah.
The situation is “bitter sweet.” These storms promise to refill aquifers and help the drought battered west see an increase in hydroelectric water reserves. It also will bring about the best skiing of the winter to many western states. Nevertheless, additional mudslides will be possible in parts of California. –JIM ROEMER
Melted moisture projection (inches) next 2 weeks. Translated to snow, this means feet and feet out west.
The title may sound like the first line of a joke, but this is about the environment.
Environmental Destruction is No Joke
The following brief dissertation is not a joke, but there is a joker in the narrative. See if you can spot him.
Theodore Roosevelt: President of the United States 1901-1909
“Teddy” was an avid outdoorsman, as well as an author, explorer, naturalist, conservationist and soldier. Having lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war, he returned home as a war hero. He was elected governor of the state of New York and then as William McKinley’s vice president. Subsequent to McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt became the 25th president. Upon entering the Oval Office, he went straight to work on the environment. In addition to setting aside 230 million acres of public land as a sanctuary from the forces of modernity, he created the United States Forest Service, and established:
150 national forests
51 federal bird reserves
4 national game preserves
5 national parks
Theodore Roosevelt, at the age of 42, was the youngest person to become US president.
Richard Nixon: President of the United States 1969-1974
Nixon, who started out practicing law, saw active duty in the US Navy Reserve during World War II, and became a career politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. From 1952 to 1960 he served as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president. In 1968 he was elected the 37th US president. In 1970 he created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whose purpose, among several others, was to enforce air-pollution laws. The law’s intention was to reduce the emission of six common pollutants:
Particles
Ozone
Lead
Carbon monoxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Richard Nixon was the only US president who left office by resignation.
Donald Trump: President of the United States 2017 – 20??
Before he became a presidential aspirant, the real-estate developer and reality television personality, Donald Trump, tweeted (2012), “The concept of global warming was created by, and for, the Chinese, in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” Since entering the Oval Office, in one year’s time he presided over events covered in the following headlines:
Order Aims to Expand Offshore Drilling (April)
Interior Department Scrubs Climate Change Website (April)
Trump Budget Proposes Steep Cuts for Environment (May)
US Pulls Out of Paris Climate Agreement (June)
Mining Health Study Halted; Climate Advisory Panel Disbanded (August)
Trump EPA Poised to Scrap Clean Power Plan (October)
Interior Department Proposes Largest-Ever Oil and Gas Lease Auction (October)
Trump Unveils Plan to Dramatically Downsize Two National Monuments (December)
Trump Drops Climate Change from List of National Security Threats (December)
Donald Trump, at the age of 70, was the oldest person to become US president.
By his own admission, Donald Trump is a joker. Trump told Fox & Friends:
“Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I’d be — received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn’t care less. They have very — you know, their standards are nothing. But they — in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it’s very hard on our business.”
Politico.com is the source for the above Fox & Friends transcript from an interview on 1/18/2017.
(Scroll to bottom of blog space for other credits)
But first… AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
Credits
Published material written by Gene Stone (“Surviving Trump”)
Nationalgeographic.com news piece by Michael Greshko, Laura Parker and Brian Clark Howard
The global community of Wikipedia contributors
1909 Oval Office photograph source is whitehousemuseum.org
Caracature of Theodore Roosevelt attributed to artist “Donkey Hotey”
Caracature of Richard Nixon appeared on a Dutch bubble gum card by “Tribetton”
Caracature of Donald Trump attributed to artist Alan Davis
Joker cards copied from Google image search for “Jokers on classic playing cards”
Official video of Bob Dylan’s Jokerman (Infidels – 1983) is posted on YouTube. Video producers – George Lois and Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman. Music producer- Mark Knoppfler
HELPING YOU MAKE THE BEST INVESTMENT DECISIONS BASED ON THE WEATHER
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy
