Author Archives: Kit Stolz

We Interrupt This Blog for Donald Hall

A couple of days ago, Donald Hall was named poet laureate of this great (if sometimes misguided) nation. A better choice could hardly be imagined: Hall has the deep literary roots and the skills to impress the academics (see his delightful "Mr. Eliot," about meeting, yes, T.S. Eliot)…but also the common touch, the ability toContinue reading “We Interrupt This Blog for Donald Hall”

Chinese Coal Pollution Reaches the Sierras

"China is generating such enormous quantities of pollution [from coal plants] that the effects are felt farther downwind than usual. Sulfur and ash that make breathing a hazard are being carried by the wind to South Korea, Japan and beyond." "Not enough of the Chinese emissions reach the United States to have an appreciable effectContinue reading “Chinese Coal Pollution Reaches the Sierras”

Catching Up to Hurricane Season

Hurricane season began last week with a flood of facts that completely blew out the information belief systems of yours truly. Extensive knowledge repair and reconstruction was required.

While digging out of the wreckage, here are some of the things I’ve learned:

1)    Hurricane experts–led by William Gray –say there is a one-in-eleven chance that a hurricane Category 3 or stronger could hit the East Coast between New York City and Cape Cod, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal [that is not on-line].

One such storm came ashore on Long Island with waves thirty to fifty feet high in l938, killing fifty people, in a time when millions fewer lived in the area.

According to the NYTimes [$] Nationwide Insurance will not cover homes within a half-mile of the Long Island coastline. Allstate, which lost $1.55 billion in the third quarter last year, is dropping "thousands" of customers, according to the WSJ, while rival Metlife Auto & Home is greatly restricting the amount of coverage it writes, requiring hurricane shutters or storm windows, and raising the deductible. 

Both insurers say the hurricane of 1938 has factored into their thinking. Back then, few people understood what was coming. While still out at sea, the hurricane at one point was traveling at 70 miles an hour, which remains the record for the fastest moving storm, according to a history compiled by Scott Mandia, a meteorology professor at Suffolk County Community College. At the time, however, most forecasters believed the storm would veer out to sea.

Instead, it plowed into Long Island, but the damage was limited because so much of the island was farmland. A repeat now could be deadlier, and almost certainly costlier. Then, Long Island was home to 600,000 people. Now it has more than 2.8 million. Median home values have risen 30% since 2003 to $475,000, among the highest values in the nation.

"If that were to hit today in the same area, it would rival Hurricane Andrew, if not more so, as far as damage done," says Mike Wiley, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s forecasting office on Long Island. If the most forceful winds hit closer to New York City, he added, "It would surpass the damage that we just saw with Hurricane Katrina." And he adds that "statistically, we’re overdue."

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Global Warming on One Page

One of the many good ideas that came out of the Yale Project on Climate Change was simply to put together a one-page version of the consensus science on climate change, and what it means for us here on earth.

By chance, Roger Ebert as a veteran reviewer happens to have done that, and quite well, I think, and his version is posted below. I’ll continue to post more good versions as they come along, but this is actually the best I’ve seen to date.

(A personal note: For reasons mysterious to yours truly, despite the fact that he has been reviewing movies for almost forty years, is a reliable, amusing, and insightful critic, and has even won the Pulitzer Prize, it seems that people just cannot give Ebert his due. Often I hear him called "Gene Siskel," even though his former partner died seven years ago. Or they call him "the fat one." Perhaps it’s because Ebert is a better writer than he is a TV performer. Or perhaps people just don’t like critics. Or perhaps people don’t like people named Roger. Anyhow! Please look at the following as writing, and ask yourself: Is this not a good summary of the challenge of global warming?)

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (summary/review by Roger Ebert)

I want to write this review so every reader will begin it and finish it. I am a liberal, but I do not intend this as a review reflecting any kind of politics. It reflects the truth as I understand it, and it represents, I believe, agreement among the world’s experts.

Global warming is real.