Global Warming Ignored By Corporate Media

Cedar Rapids

Excellent post pointing out what the corporate media ignores: our "weird" weather is actually a direct consequence of climate change.

Kirk James Murphy, M.D., firedoglake: Another Gift From Global Climate Change: That Ugly Weather

Tonight Coach Mom called to tell me that a wind shear event this afternoon dropped a huge old pine tree on her neighbor's house; another neighbor can't get into their house because a piece of roof blocks the door; and half the town is without power. This is in the same tiny community that had a $30 million storm wash out several major roads June 19th of last year. That was their fourth major flood in two years.

MSNBC is in their second day of non-stop coverage of the untimely death of Tim Russert. It is sad that a man that young who was a great friend to all of them died, but it is not earth-shaking news. Tens of thousands are now dying every year in global-warming fueled natural disasters. Hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes, and heat waves are covered as though this was just the weather, but it is actually earth-shattering news of climate change. Maybe if Tim Russert had drowned in a 500-year-flood, the media would cover global warming.

Global Warming Comes To Iowa

An aerial photo shows a flooded area of downtown looking North over Cedar Rapids, Iowa June 13, 2008. Interstate I-380 can be seen at top while Mays Island, with Cedar Rapids City Hall, is seen on the left with its bridges under water. Floodwaters have inundated about 100 city blocks of Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city with 200,000 residents.
(Ron Mayland/Reuters)

While the news commentators never mention global warming, how many cities and states can have 500 year floods before the media tell us the truth? If you google < iowa flooding > you get 13, 785 news results; if you google < iowa flooding global warming > you get 13, and half of those are global warming deniers.

LATimes: Tens of thousands flee Iowa flooding

Chicago Sun-Times: Iowa's Katrina

DemocraticOz at dailykos: "Unprecedented." Iowa Flooding - w/ photos

More DoubleTalk From McCain

John McCain, the man who stood next to George W. Bush as New Orleans was drowning and didn't do anything, now says he'd respond promptly to a massive natural disaster. Watch the video below for his lies and prevarications on this subject.

UN: Glaciers Melting At Fastest Rate in 5,000 Years

AP
UNEP warned that further ice loss could have dramatic consequences, particularly in India


Unfortunately, I can guarantee only one thing about this UN report: It will get a very tiny amount of coverage compared to Eliot Spitzer's having paid for sex.

Sunday Observer (uk): Glaciers melt 'at fastest rate in past 5,000 years'

The world's glaciers are melting faster than at any time since records began, threatening catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people and their eco-systems.

[]

Experts have been monitoring 30 glaciers around the world for nearly three decades and the most recent figures, for 2006, show the biggest ever 'net loss' of ice. Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told The Observer that melting glaciers were now the 'loudest and clearest' warning signal of global warming.

The problem could lead to failing infrastructure, mass migration and even conflict. 'We're talking about something that happens in your and my lifespan. We're not talking about something hypothetical, we're talking about something dramatic in its consequences,' he said

Lester Brown, of the influential US-based Earth Policy Institute, said the problem would have global ramifications, as farmers in China and India struggled to irrigate their crops.

'This is the biggest predictable effect on food security in history as far as I know,' said Brown.

Sunday Observer (uk): Lost glaciers start countdown to climate chaos

[A]s they retreat, glacial lakes will burst, debris and ice will fall in avalanches, rivers will flood and then dry up, and sea levels will rise even further, say the climate experts. Communities will be deprived of essential water, crops will be ruined and power stations which rely on river flows paralysed.

As a result, people will have to change their lifestyles, their farming, even move their homes, says Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He also fears the problem could exacerbate tensions over inadequate supplies between neighbouring states and countries, possibly spilling over into conflict.

'We're talking about a major transformation, from household livelihood to big industries,' says Steiner. 'While I'm always cautious about "water wars", certainly the potential for water to become a trigger for more tension and, where there's already conflict, to exacerbate conflict is another issue that's not hypothetical.'

The scale of the problem so alarms Lester Brown, a leading environmental thinker, that he fears huge populations dependent on glacier-fed rivers in Asia - 360 million on the Ganges in India and 388 million on the Yangtze in China alone - will not be able to feed themselves, with devastating effect on already rising global food prices.

Independent (uk): Glacier ice loss at record levels

Pic of the Day

yahoo: Stormy seas hit coastal sea defences and a lighthouse at Seaford in Sussex in southern England March 10, 2008. A storm rushing in from the Atlantic lashed the south west on Monday as high winds and tides brought the risk of coastal flooding.
REUTERS/Toby Melville (BRITAIN)

Kanye West Was Right

Hurricane Katrina hit two years ago today:



Heckuva Job Bushie and his Republican band of heartless cronies kill an American city:



And of course, Bush lied. He was warned about the levees:



Kanye West calls it:

Flooding Linked to Global Warming

bbc.com:
The severe flooding can best be appreciated from the air. The Norman abbey in Tewkesbury, founded in 1087 and consecrated in 1121, now stands alone against the advancing flood water.
Independent (uk): England under water: scientists confirm global warming link to increased rain

It's official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate change, a major new scientific study will reveal this week, as the country reels from summer downpours of unprecedented ferocity.

More intense rainstorms across parts of the northern hemisphere are being generated by man-made global warming, the study has established for the first time ­ an effect which has long been predicted but never before proved.

The study's findings will be all the more dramatic for being disclosed as Britain struggles to recover from the phenomenal drenching of the past few days, during which more than a month's worth of rain fell in a few hours in some places, and floods forced thousands from their homes.

The Town of Colchester in New York State got two months worth of rain -- 8 inches -- in two hours last month. Those flash floods washed away homes and four people lost their lives.

This is happening worldwide:

Times (uk): Global warming already changing rainfall

A STUDY has yielded the first confirmation that global warming is already affecting the world's rainfall patterns, bringing more precipitation to northern Europe, Canada and northern Russia but less to swathes of sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and Southeast Asia.

kansascity.com: Torrential rains cause flooding in South and Central Texas

As much as 17 inches of rain had fallen in some areas between 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, said Pat McDonald, a National Weather Service forecaster. Dozens of people were rescued, some by helicopter, but no serious injuries were reported in the state’s latest round of flooding.

Haaretz.com: Report: Global warming could cause future flooding in Tel Aviv, Haifa

According to the projected scenarios, if no steps are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there will be a 3.3 degree rise in temperatures in the summer, and there will be a rise in the frequency, intensity and length of heat waves. There will also be a 20-30 percent drop in the annual amount of precipitation and a reduction in days of rainfall, but a rise in incidents of torrential rain.

Pakistan Daily Times: Floods could become more frequent

Parts of China had the heaviest rainfall since records began, killing more than 400. Some 770 people have been killed by flooding in South Asia with hundreds of thousands displaced by flash floods in southern Pakistan.

“They had no time to react,” said UNICEF spokeswoman Kathryn Grusovin from Balochistan. “They hadn’t seen rains like this in living memory. There had been episodes of flooding but this was right off the map. You are talking massive amounts of rain that has never been seen before.”

It is a similar story around the globe. More than 50 people were killed in Sudan. Hundreds had to flee homes in northern England as the water rose. In Colombia, flooding displaced some 50,000 people.

More Envivonmental Destruction From Our Friends the Coal Companies

The latest method of coal mining is 'mountaintop removal', a bland-sounding name for the destruction of the West Virginia mountains with dynamite. This causes flooding, pollution, and the destruction of the natural environment. Watch the video:



hat tip to Suburban Guerrilla

Wild Weather Becoming Common

bbc: A 15 minute flash flood left this scene in Portishead, North Somerset. Photo: Adam Heskins
Those flash floods in the Catskills last week -- in England last week -- in Texas and Oklahoma last week -- in Kansas and Missouri this week -- that's not unusual anymore. That's becoming the norm.

Independent (uk): Wild Weather: dispatches from an ailing planet
Cyclones devastate parts of Pakistan, floods wreak havoc in Texas, wildfires threaten Athens. And this is just the start, reports David Usborne

Catskills Flash Flood: The Aftermath

Utility workers work to restore power in Colchester, N.Y., Thursday, June 21, 2007. Searchers recovered the body of one person killed after flash floods surged through the edge of the Catskill Mountains and were looking Thursday for up to six people missing. Scores of troopers, rangers, National Guard members and firefighters combed for a second day through acres of washed-away homes, uprooted trees and mud-covered roads in rural Delaware County. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Middletown Times Herald-Record: Rescuers' tales of courage

Oneonta Daily Star: Emergency center established in Downsville for flood victims

News10Now: Flood devastated community in Catskills (with video)

ExpressTimes (PA): Flash floods in New York create water troubles here

NYSDOTNews: NYSDOT Helps Restore Roads in Flood-Ravaged Region
State Crews Focus on Holiday Brook and Berry Brook Roads in Delaware County

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Two Dead, Two Missing, Over $20 Million in Damage

A backhoe is used to remove debris from around a house in Colchester, N.Y., in the aftermath of the flooding Friday, June 22, 2007. Scores of searchers have been picking through the mounds of muddy rubble left in the flash flood's wake since Wednesday. (AP Photo/Don Minichino, Pool)

The recovery from last week's flash flood continues. The bodies of Fred and Marjorie Shutts were recovered and laid to rest, but two women, Gertrude Melvin and Barbara Clarke Cooper, remain missing and are presumed dead. The land search has been called off and now authorities are searching bodies of water.

If you wish to donate to the flood victims, a fund has been established.

Middletown Times Herald-Record: Damage estimates from flood approach $23 million

On Tuesday, SEMO pegged the damage to public property in the Delaware County town at about $5 million - far short of the number for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in. Now that number has climbed to "a little more than $20 million," Michalski said.

That estimate for public property only refers to roads and bridges, debris removal and the emergency response, Michalski said.

SEMO has not yet assessed the damage to 150 homes because several roads have been impassable.

The damage to personal property along the 4-mile stretch north of Roscoe also has been staggering. The latest count has 33 homes, mobile homes and other structures destroyed. Another 12 homes have had major damage, and six with minor damage.

Numerous cars and motorcycles were also flattened, or swept downstream.

About 99 percent of the damage is in Delaware County, along County Road 7 (Route 206 in Sullivan County) and town roads off Spring Brook, in an area known as Cat Hollow. A tiny amount is in the neighboring Sullivan County Town of Rockland.

Oneonta Daily Star: Area News Briefs June 27, 2007

COLCHESTER _ The towns of Colchester and Andes remain under states of emergency because of significant flooding June 19, according to a news release Tuesday from the Delaware County Department of Emergency Services.

County Route 7, also known as Cat Hollow Road and state Route 206, will be closed between Roscoe and Downsville for an undetermined amount of time. Many of the roads near county Route 7 have been devastated and are closed.

Middletown Times Herald=Record: Special Report: Full coverage of the flash flood

Catskills Flash Flood: More Video, Photos

From the Middletown Times-Herald Record, video taken driving down what's left of Route 206 towards Roscoe. The damage from the storm is almost entirely within the Town of Colchester. It's the town's fourth major flood in the past two years.

I drove to Coach Mom's house today and to avoid all the emergency vehicles going from Route 30 to Holiday Brook and Cat Hollow, I came down 88 instead. I watched horizontal lightning from the exits for Cooperstown until I got off at Oneonta to go to Brooks' BBQ (sorry guys). At Brooks' takeout window they had the Weather Channel on overhead, which had the orange bar at the bottom for a severe thunderstorm warning for Franklin (where I was headed) and a tornado warning for Ithaca. Luckily for me the storms were already passing and stayed ahead of me as I headed south. There are currently at least three people missing from the flash flood in Colchester, and one of them was reportedly swept away in a car. I thought about that all the way home.

recordonline.com - The Times Herald-Record, serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills

Photos submitted by THR readers:

recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

THR: Flash Flood Day Two: recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

midhudsonnews.com: Search continues for missing as damage toll is in the millions

Delaware County 911 Coordinator and Deputy Emergency Services Director Steve Finch told MidHudsonNews.com today that early assessment of property damage just to Delaware County exceeds $5 million. That just pertains to county roads, bridges and other infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed. The raging floodwaters were so intense that they tore large slabs of pavement off roadways.

Route 206 is also County Route 7, and is the most traveled road in the county. Bizarrely, in the past few years the county has posted signs designating it as a seasonal road, meaning that it doesn't get priority plowing for snow and that you are at your own risk traveling.

Catskills Flash Flood: Video

The Daily Star has posted a 2 minute video that contains footage shot by Ed and Melissa Blass, who abandoned their Toyota Prius for higher ground. The car is gone but they survived. You can hear and see the hail hitting the windshield hard.

The Daily Star: Flooding in Delaware County

Update: Here's a story from Albany's NewsChannel 9:

My News 9 Cast

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Thursday, June 21, 2007

These photos, taken yesterday show damage to Route 206 in the Delaware County Town of Colchester left by the floods that hit Tuesday night.
Times Herald-Record/TOM BUSHEY

NYTimes: Up to 5 Are Missing in Flooded Catskill Town When this story originally was posted last night, the headline read "Up to 7...".

recordonline: Rains spark killer wave; 6 reported missing in Delaware flood

recordonline: Flood survivors tell tales of escape, express gratitude for saviors

recordonline: Series of storms caused floods in Colchester

Oneonta Daily Star: Cat Hollow Flooding 2007 Photo Gallery P.S., Daily Star, it's Cat Hollow, not Cat Hallow, no cat worshiping going on there.

Oneonta Daily Star: Four missing after flood

Oneonta Daily Star: Local woman escapes flood on Cat Hollow

Oneonta Daily Star: Oneontans stranded

Binghamton Press: Delaware County flooding wipes out roads, homes
4 missing as searches continue

Binghamton Press: Delaware County Flood Photo Gallery

7Online.com (WABC): Search continues for missing flood victims
6 people still missing, including the elderly

Two months worth of rain, up to eight inches pounded down late Tuesday in just two hours.

midhudsonnews.com: One confirmed dead in flood aftermath

GARY KLINDT photo/Binghamton Press
Aerial view of the damage along Delaware County Route 7 / State Route 206 in the Town of Colchester on Wednesday where a flash flood Tuesday evening caused Spring Brook to wash out roads, bridges and homes, leaving several people missing.

Flooding from the Beaverkill on Tuesday washed away sections of Route 206 in the Delaware County Town of Colchester and caused major damage to the town.
Times Herald-Record/TOM BUSHEY

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Town of Colchester

Oneonta Daily Star: Four missing after flooding in Colchester

DOWNSVILLE— Four people were missing and at least was one presumed dead after an 8-foot-high wall of water rushed through two valleys in the Delaware County town of Colchester, officials said Wednesday.

Downsville Fire Department First Assistant Chief Mark Mattson said searches had been going on since the storm hit Tuesday night. However, late Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that police were forced to temporarily call off a search, citing darkness and safety. The AP said two people initially unaccounted for were found, and searches were expected to resume in the morning.

In Colchester, Gertrude Melvin, who was visiting her daughter and son-in-law, Elaine and George Finkle, was presumed dead after she was swept away by the water as her son-in-law attempted to rescue her, according to a family friend.

Fred and Marjorie Shutts were also missing after their home was washed away. The Shuttses’ home was next to the Finkles’ home, officials said.

“Holiday Brook Road is basically nonexistent, and county Route 7 is almost as bad,” Mattson said Wednesday.

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Six Missing, Three Presumed Dead

Photographer:
THR/MICHELE HASKELL
About the Photo:
Sullivan County Deputy Fire Coordinator Bill Lothrop looks through debris by the foundation of a home that was swept away with an elderly couple inside The couple along with another neighbor who was also swept away with his home are still missing as well as several motorists who were traveling on Rt. 206 in Colchester when an 8-foot wall raged through them.

recordonline: Six missing, three believed dead in flash flood
Homes, bridges washed away

5:30 p.m. - Six people are missing and three are presumed dead after a flash flood washed away several homes and damaged bridges just north of the Sullivan County hamlet of Roscoe last night.

Flood waters swept homes and cars away, ripped up pavement and dumped tons of mud and rocks along an 8-mile stretch of Route 206 from a mile north of Roscoe to Route 30 near the Pepacton Reservoir in the Delaware County Town of Colchester.

An elderly woman is presumed dead after an 8-foot-high wall of water away two trailer homes in Colchester. Gertrude Melvin was visiting her daughter when the storm hit. She was unable to reach a rescue rope and was killed after water swept her away, according to her family.

Melvin’s daughter, Elaine Finkle, is a 19-year employee in Sullivan County’s Office of the Aging. Finkle’s husband, George Finkle, works for New York State Electric & Gas. A trailer belonging to George’s parents, who lived next door, was also washed away. According to one of Elaine Finkle’s co-workers, the family lost their automobiles, their home and everything in it.

Also presumed dead are Fred and Marjorie Shutts, whose home was ripped off its foundation in the same area.

Paul Piatk, the Shutts’ neighbor, saw the couple standing on the porch around 7 p.m. An 8-foot wave swept their home away. Piatk said he saw state Trooper Joe Decker dive into the water, but Decker was forced to swim back to the bank.

“It was just a big, huge wave that swept everything away,” Piatk said. “The wave came down within two minutes; the garage, the car, the motorcycle, the wave just took it.”

recordonline: Photo Gallery: Flooding: Search and Rescue

7online.com (WABC):
Several missing after flooding
At least one woman confirmed dead

Also, four homes were washed away by the floods. Residents of between 15 and 18 homes in Roscoe, at the Sullivan County border, were evacuated. Drivers along Route 7 had to be rescued from their cars.

A little good news:

midhudsonnews.com: Elderly couple rescued from flood waters

Roscoe -- When Lajos and Susanna Erdos left a friend’s house in Walton in Delaware County to travel to their home to the Village of Ellenville in Ulster County Tuesday night, they had no idea what they would encounter on a road they have taken many times before.

The elderly Hungarian couple was driving on State Route 206 around 7:30 p.m. when they were met with heavy rain, then hail, then rising waters, all within minutes.

Mrs. Erdos said she told her husband to drive on the left side of the road just because it was rising so much quicker on the right, but within a few minutes, they had to pull over due to the quickly rising rush of water coming down the road. That is where they stayed for over night until being rescued early this morning.

“We sat there for 11 hours with little food or water, and the water was up to our waists,” Mrs. Erdos told MidHudsonNews.com while having a bite to eat at a Red Cross Disaster Relief Center setup at the Roscoe Middle School. “It was so terrifying. We didn’t think we were going to come out alive. We both thought that that was it for the both us.”

The two, both in their 80s, were rescued Wednesday morning and taken to the disaster relief center, where they said they would stay until Mrs. Erdos’ daughter who lives locally would pick them up and take them home to Ellenville.

Mr. and Mrs. Erdos discuss their ordeal

One Dead, Five Missing In Catskills Flash Flood

Photographer:
THR/TOM BUSHEY
About the Photo:
This area in Colchester was damaged by flooding from the Beaverkill on June 19, 2007. Route 206 is at the top of the frame. Colchester is in Delaware County, just across the county line from Roscoe. June 20, 2007.


recordonline: Elderly woman killed in flash flood
Homes washed away, five residents still missing

recordonline: Aerial Photo Gallery

recordonline.com: Aerial Video, Roscoe flood damage

NYDailyNews (AP): Breaking News
Search continues for people missing in Catskills flash floods

Another Year of June Flash Floods in the Catskills

Photographer:
THR/MIKE RICE
About the Photo:
The Beaverkill River in Roscoe flooded on Wednesday, June 20, 2007, causing many locals to evacuate while some were missing within the flood zone. Search and rescue workers from around the county teamed up to search for the missing individuals.
Last summer while Coach Mom & I were in Germany, we were shocked to see video on CNN International of flooding in Hancock, New York.

Last night there was another episode of flash flooding in the Catskills in June. 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in a two-hour period over a small area near Roscoe and homes were swept away by the Beaverkill. Baseball-sized hail was also reported. Coach Mom says that during the rain the air appeared white from the pounding rain.

From reading the articles, it sounds like the flooding is in the area around the old Hodges Furniture store, just on the Rockland/Colchester line. I think the bridge over the Beaverkill that you cross as you drive into Rockland from Colchester is one of those washed out.

As we learned from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, one of the consequences of global warming and climate change is that our weather is more extreme. Floods are an expected consequence of warmer temperatures, as warmer air holds more moisture, and when it finally dumps out, you get floods.

Middletown Times Herald-Record: Elderly woman killed in flash flood
Homes washed away, several residents still missing

Middletown Times-Herald Record: 8 inches of rain fell on flooded area last night

recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom: "Flash flood washes away homes"

recordonline Video: Night activity near Roscoe flash flood scene

Binghamton Press: Colchester area hit hard by storm

Roads closed include Morton Hill, Jug Tavern, Campbell Mountain, Holiday Brook, Berry Brook and Beaver Hill roads, Route 7 from Downsville to Roscoe, and State Route 30 in the area.