"1,000 year" flooding in Colorado
By Thom Hartmann A...
More than 1,200 people are unaccounted for in the wake of historic flooding in Colorado, and authorities say that more rain is on the way. Currently, flood waters cover more than 2,000 square miles in Colorado, and spread across 15 counties. The unprecedented flooding is being called a “1,000 year event,” as half a year's worth of rain hit that region in a 24-hour period, and more continues to fall. Search and rescue operations are ongoing, but the heavy rains have grounded several of the rescue helicopters, and hindered evacuations.
The Incident Management Team Commander, Shane Del Grosso, said, “We need a change in the weather pattern to get a break and to really go after what needs to be done.” So far, rescuers have helped more than 11,000 people escape the rising flood waters, but as of Sunday, at least five deaths had been attributed to the flood. President Obama declared a major disaster in the state, and promised federal aid for rescue and repair efforts. Already, damages in Boulder County alone are estimated at $150 million, which is 10 to 15 times that county's entire annual budget. And, more than 19,000 homes in Colorado have been damaged or destroyed. Many roads and bridges have been completely wiped out by the flood waters, and a massive rebuilding project will be required to repair the damage.
Over the weekend, The National Weather Service called the rainfall “biblical” - but some argue another cause. According to the Think Progress Blog, it will take months of research to determine whether climate change played a roll in the record flooding, but extreme precipitation is often linked to global warming. The ongoing tragedy is a reminder of what can happen when extreme weather outmatches our ability to adapt. Regardless of why the flooding occurred, most Americans say our nation must respond to those in need in Colorado, and we must become better prepared for events like this in the future.
Comments
#2
Fire storms, biblical "1,000 year" floods, super tornadoes, killer hurricanes and we're fixated on securing, controlling and profiting off the energy source that is causing it all. What is wrong with this picture? Mass myopia! As a wise man once said, "You get what you pay for."
#3
The absurdity of our current "politics" will become apparent to all as the FREAKING EXPENSE of Global Climate Change dwarfs our current budget concerns. The FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY has to be made to PAY for the damages they've inflicted on our planet for their GREED! You can't debate SOCIOPATHS! You have to get their attention and start an argument for making them pay which might just get them to pay to figure out what to do with the waste they create,
AND THEN CHARGING US TO DO THAT!
i ADMIT THAT FOR THE SAKE OF MY GRANDCHILDREN, I WILL PAY THAT BILL! But it will really, REALLY! PISS ME OFF!
#4
" Regardless of why the flooding occurred, most Americans say our nation must respond to those in need in Colorado, and we must become better prepared for events like this in the future."
"Regardless of why", implies that we have no scientific reason for believing in global warming. Most scientists are warning of more disasters and that we might have gone past the time that the damage can be reversed. There are disruptions in weather all around the world...not just Colorado.
Science shows rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is causing global fluctuations in temperatures and storms.
According to The Economist, the Greenland ice sheet is retreating. “The permafrost is shrinking: Alien plants, birds, fish and animals are creeping north: Atlantic mackerel, haddock and cod are coming up in Arctic nets…The Arctic is warming roughly twice as fast as the rest of the planet…If the warming continues, it could eventually disintegrate, raising the sea level by seven meters. Many of the worlds biggest cities would be inundated long before that happened.”
How high is the cost of inaction?
#5
Quote Carol R:According to The Economist, the Greenland ice sheet is retreating. “The permafrost is shrinking: Alien plants, birds, fish and animals are creeping north: Atlantic mackerel, haddock and cod are coming up in Arctic nets…
Carol R ~ All too true. However, you didn't mention all the methane trapped in the Greenland permafrost. When eventually released it is expected that it will cause a drastic acceleration of global warming. Thom estimates that in past global extinctions it was the sudden release of methane that brought about 90% of all extinctions in a short period of time. There is much more to global warming and mass extinctions than current climate scientists are considering or even aware of. Geologists have a better understanding of the full dangers of global warming from their study of ancient glacial samplings of ancient atmospheres. The sudden release of methane is the major threat that the "Mainstream Media" and the government is not telling us. When that methane hits the fan these modern day weather catastrophes will pale in comparison to what we are in store for.
#6
HEMP ~ Was brought up in todays show. Bravo, again for Thom and his listeners. Hemp is a plant that can combat global warming better than anything else.
Hemp is a versatile, fast growing herb that could replace oil, fuel, plastic, building materials, cotton, paper, and can also be used for a wide variety of medicines. The seed is edible and an excellent source of protein. It's cheap, easy to grow, and can be grown in any environment in all 50 states. It is excellent in crop rotation, helps build the soil, and doesn't need pesticides. An organic pesticide is made from it. It's only enemy is the United States Government.
During the growth cycle of a plant, the plant takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. If we grew hemp for our fuel instead of using fossil fuels we would balance out the natural gas cycle of the environment and end global warming. If we then also grew the plant for not combustible reasons, such as those listed above, we could actually start to reverse global warming by producing more oxygen than carbon dioxide.
As is prophecized in The King James Version of The Holy BibleQuote The Book of Revelations, Chapter 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
#7
A leaked report today from a very the respected the UN's Intergovernmental panel on climate change that was going to be released on Sept 27. Is suggesting that the problem isn't as bad as we thought. I guess that explains why the trillions of dollars we have spent on wind, solar and battery power hasn't changed a thing.
#8
Kend ~ A respected UN Intergovernmental panel? I got a better idea, why not ask eyewitnesses? Let's ask people who just lost their homes in Colorado, or in the midwest from tornadoes, or in Louisiana from Katrina, or in New York from Isaac, or in California from the Mt. Diablo firestorm, or in Oklahoma from Snowmageddon, or right now in Acapulco from Manuel? I see your "Intergovernmental panel" and raise you 5 million first hand witnesses and victims.
Why hasn't efforts on wind, solar, and battery power changed global warming? Because we are still burning fossil fuels. Please read my previous post for an explanation. Wind, solar, and battery are great ways of making energy; but, they don't clean the air. We need a source of energy that can replace fossil fuels and clean the air. (ie replace carbon dioxide with oxygen) Hemp is that source of energy. Oil is obsolete and will destroy the human race if not discontinued.
#9
Article on the Daily Mail about leaked UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)Quote Global warming is just HALF what we said: World's top climate scientists admit computers got the effects of greenhouse gases wrong:Despite the many scientific uncertainties disclosed by the leaked report, it nonetheless draws familiar, apocalyptic conclusions – insisting that the IPCC is more confident than ever that global warming is mainly humans’ fault.It says the world will continue to warm catastrophically unless there is drastic action to curb greenhouse gases – with big rises in sea level, floods, droughts and the disappearance of the Arctic icecap.
#10
Kend ~ Whatever that UN panel says, a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out this image of the North pole in 1980 compared to the image in 2003.
1979 vs 2007
Ice pack melting in Greenland.
http://cires.colorado.edu/steffen/
Now imagine what is going to happen when all that fresh water melting dilutes the north atlantic conveyer killing the plankton that helps clean the earth's air; and at the same time massive amounts of methane are released from Greenlands exposed permafrost. The computer program used by the UN Intergovernmental panel on climate control is only as good as the data inputted. Garbage in garbage out. It doesn't take into account environmental variables and geological fact. Shame. With their resources they could do so much better than peddling a computer model for the petroleum industry. Average global temperature is irrelevant. Arctic temperature, ocean temperature, and ocean salt content is what we should be addressing. Air content of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane are also critical.
The picture speaks for itself. Measure the ice mass decline and the time frame and you can figure out the rest yourself. You don't need a computer model to see there is a serious problem.
#11
Events like these serve as a reminder that man is not as powerful as he thinks he is. The problem with the climate-change folks on the left is that they weight the argument on the side of man being the factor driving the changes. Yes man is a factor in the ecosphere, but he is not the dominant factor. Does that mean I am all for polluting? No, in point of fact I do not own a car, ride a bicycle, am vegetarian work in high efficiency low impact energy systems, and recycle. But I recognize the fact that data is regularly manipulated by both sides in order to get what they want: money, power or both. We have made great strides to improve the efficiency of our society, and the answer lies not in going back to the stone age, but to forge ahead by fully understanding our world and make the needed changes to improve as discoveries are made. But we must do this in a manner that continues the improved efficiency of society, not make arbitrary rules that cripple progress for the sake of insignificant 'improvement'.
#12
It's really too bad this storm harmed so many people and ruined so many houses. And yes, with our republican friends doing all they can to destroy this entire planet and pull our weather systems out of homeostasis, we can count on this kind of thing becoming the norm rather than unusual, so really it's best for people to not live in flood plains.
And we can count on Pat Robertson continuing to blame the weather disturbances on God's hatred of gays, but the truth of the matter is that God has changed our weather because He hates Pat Robertson- I know this because Mr. Twain told me so.
Anyway, there's another very good reason to not live in flood plains: the flood plains get lots of pollutants from upriver:
1. Endocrine-disrupting weed poisons and neurotoxic insect poisons that wash into the river from lawns and farms, and when the river floods downriver properties, they get the poisonous chemicals from upriver;
2. E-coli and other bacteria and diseases from upriver chicken, pig, dairy, or cattle farms, and then very dangerously pollute downriver land that gets flooded;
3. Raw sewage from upriver sewage treatments plants that are overloaded by storms because misguided city planners put in combined sewage/storm systems, and because most sewage treatment plants are designed to dump raw sewage into rivers when they get overloaded by heavy rains.
My dad had a property on a river. It flooded, and for years the entire property stank- I mean, it reeked like you would not believe- of raw sewage and insect poisons. A friend had a property and a trailer on a flood plain, and after heavy rains, his trailer washed away and his property is now in the middle of the river. So of course he then went and bought another property, on a different flood plain, and built a barn on it. He said the price was right...
#13
Geo engineering is a facinating subject that joins a lot of dots. Weather man-ipulation is making some companies a lot of money.
#14
Yes I know we are all going to die. But before that all the ponds and lakes will fill up to normal levels again like they have been doing for millions of years and all this global warming stuff will fade away just like it did in the 70's when we where going to all freeze to death because of global cooling or the eighties when we where all going to burn to death because of the hole in the Ozone layer. I have been there done that to many times to buy into it again.
Every generation has to protest something I guess
#15
These mass shootings/atrocities might just slow down (unfortunately,they will never stop) if the NRA would let the sane people decide what the majorty wants and not dump their million$ into lying distored political campaigns. The insanity that the NRA pushes will only lead to more of the same.
Some how this organazation must be shown for exactly what they are, a Republican backed group that make these insane gun laws in back room deals with the far-right gready GOP members that only think about the money not the mounting body count. This trend can be changed with a lot of hard work!
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