On Meet the Press yesterday, three oil company executives came to talk about the high prices, oil exploration and development, and, believe it or not, the need for conservation. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell aren’t in complete agreement on all issues, and may have been talking about conservation partly in hopes that people will listen toContinue reading “Oil Companies and Sierra Club Agree: Time for Conservation”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Sunday Morning on the Planet
A couple of friends have been asking questions about where to go in the Sierras. It’s great fun to attempt to answer such questions, although it arouses my own desires to visit again, even if along a popular well-trod trail, and even if I won’t have enough time to lose myself properly. Who knows; maybeContinue reading “Sunday Morning on the Planet”
Bush’s Environmental Legacy
According to Toles:
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”
Just Another Storm
From Editor & Publisher’s Photo of the Week. By Joshua Gunter, of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
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”
Sunday Morning on the Planet
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains." Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," by Henry Thoreau
Submerged City
Adam Zagajewski, author of the immortal Mysticism for Beginners, has a new work out in this month’s issue of Poetry that I’ve been thinking about for days. See if it does the same for you. Submerged City That city will be no more, no halosof spring mornings when green hillstremble in the midst and riselikeContinue reading “Submerged City”
Fresh Ayre
Not everything is about climate, believe it or not. Here’s a preview of this weekend’s Ojai Music Festival, which promises to be spectacular, especially Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre.
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."
Kit Stolz 