An absolutely fascinating piece in today's Wall Street Journal reveals why Obama was so prescient about the housing crisis. In brief: When he was still a longshot candidate, long before the first primary, he met and impressed Paul Volcker. Volcker was chief of the Federal Reserve back in Reagan's era. For years Volcker's reputation hasContinue reading “How Paul Wolcker Helped Obama Foresee the Meltdown”
Category Archives: disaster
Waiting for Gustav
As the hurricane, now listed at Category 4, spins its way north towards Louisiana, I can’t help but think of those in its path. Some bloggers are choosing to wait it out, despite the mandatory evacuation, such as Kyle LeBoeuf, who in Lafayette dared the hurricane to "bring it on!" The taunting might be crazy,Continue reading “Waiting for Gustav”
Gustav and the GOP: Let’s Dance!
A plot from the National Hurricane Center (below)…Gustav could arrive in New Orleans just in time to compete with the Republican National Convention. As a Category 3 hurricane. One presumes that the city and the Republican leadership will be better prepared this time, but the news is still not good for a White House linkedContinue reading “Gustav and the GOP: Let’s Dance!”
Fire in the Hills
Strange but true: the best coverage I’ve seen of the firest in Goleta and Big Sur has been coming not from the San Francisco Chronicle, not from the Los Angeles Times (although they got some good quotes yesterday), and certainly not from the Associated Press, which has been snore-inducing, but from a reporter from TheContinue reading “Fire in the Hills”
Fires: Getting Bigger…and Fast
News from Big Sur area is mixed: the Basin Complex fire (detailed here) is still nowhere near under control, and has forced evacuations and the closure of Hwy 1, but its fellow blaze, the Indians Wildland fire, is 95% contained. Pictures from the area are alarming, but the better-known areas are being well-defended. But theContinue reading “Fires: Getting Bigger…and Fast”
California: Dry and Getting Drier
Haven’t blogged about the hundreds of fires that have broken out over the last two weeks in California. The good news is that few of them have grown to be large (with the notable exception of the Basin Complex and Indians Wildland fire in the Big Sur area, which total over 100,000 acres). For more,Continue reading “California: Dry and Getting Drier”
Understanding the Iowa Floods: Achenbach Helps
Finally, a reporter (Joel Achenbach, who also has a great and hugely popular blog) helps us understand what is happening in Iowa, instead of just reeling off a bunch of numbers about flood levels: As the Cedar River rose higher and higher, and as he stacked sandbags along the levee protecting downtown Cedar Falls, KamyarContinue reading “Understanding the Iowa Floods: Achenbach Helps”
Iowa Floods: Another Reporter without a Clue
Crazy idealists such as myself, who want to preserve our traditional climate, wonder why reporters can’t even ask about what might be different about the latest flooding in the Midwest. Before you jump down my throat, of course I know that "a climatology" is tracked over a thirty-year span, so we cannot link a singleContinue reading “Iowa Floods: Another Reporter without a Clue”
Extreme Weather, Coming to Your Town Soon
The new graphics columnist for The New York Times illustrates issues powerfully, as in today’s column. Charles Blow’s words make the point we all know: According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, there have been more than four times as many weather-related disasters in the last 30 years than in theContinue reading “Extreme Weather, Coming to Your Town Soon”
Nobel Prize Winner Sees Climate Disaster Ahead
According to Andy Revkin’s invaluable Dot Earth, Nobel Prize winner F. Sherwood Rowland foresees atmospheric CO2 soaring to the level of 1,000 parts per million, two or three times what most experts (such as James Hansen) consider sustainable, resulting in a disastrously different planet. This brings to mind news of the filming of "TheContinue reading “Nobel Prize Winner Sees Climate Disaster Ahead”
Kit Stolz 