Climate Shorts, Hurricane Damage with Velocity, Trump and Pence, and Debates
Instead of updating previous articles, we just add the updates here.
The Press is making much ado about Mike Pence’s hour drive plus flight to spend the night at Trump’s Doonbeg Resort on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, 180 miles away, instead of in Dublin, where he was, and that it was at public expense. I don’t know how luxury it was, since you can book a room there at $210 a night. However, it’s too bad that the Press did not comment on the Climate Change aspects of the resort. This is the resort where Ireland was going to build an offshore wind farm, until Trump stopped it 2014. Also, currently, Trump got a ruling allowing him to build a 38,000 tonne sea wall to protect his golf course there from climate change, sea level rise, and more severe storms. I hope that the locals inform Mike about this, and that some of the demonstrators who opposed Trump’s actions showed up. (Doonbeg means small fort in Irish, and indeed, Trump treats it as such with respect to climate change.)
Trump finally recognized the aid that the US was supplying to the Bahamas, although USAID had already been supplying the aid through the State Department and the US Coast Guard. The population of the Bahamas is 400,000. They bore the brunt of the storm, where it slowed down over land, and dropped a lot of its rain when it stalled. The four Southern states which were largely saved, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, have a combined population of 47.2 million, which is about 120 times greater. They should pay their dues to the suffering of those that bore the brunt of the second largest Atlantic hurricane.
Economic research on the amount of economic damage done by hurricanes by Economics Nobel Laureate William Nordhaus show that it increases like the eighth power of its wind velocity, times the amount of time that the storm is present over an area, and causing flooding. All I did previously was calculate the Physics, that the force or damaging pressure of the storm went like the square of the velocity.
Hurricanes are caused by evaporated water vapor heating up from the heat of condensation as they condense into water. The heated water rises, creating a low pressure. Then air rushes in, and the Coriolus force rotates them counter-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere to form a tropical cyclone. Since we are talking about Trump, dropping a nuclear bomb in the middle of the cyclone will create a lot of hot air there. The air will rise mightily, creating a super hurricane. This will then deposit radioactive rain all over the South East coast. Property values will go to zero, nobody will buy their farm products, and nobody will eat the fish caught there. Oh, and people will get thyroid cancer.
In an earlier article I criticized the climate action plan by Senator Bernie Sanders for claiming that we could reach 100% renewables with wind and solar alone in ten years, but disregarding the need for other clean power and the need for natural gas to balance the fluctuations. I will be looking to see how many of the 10 Democrats also make this mistake. Sanders also wanted to drop nuclear and large hydro as soon as possible, which is not necessary. I didn’t mean for my objections to apply to the candidates themselves, but only to the plans with these problems.
The top three candidates in the climate presentations start at 5 pm Pacific Coast Time. Instead of just presenting plans, I also will be looking for those who know about the missteps of the Trump administration and criticize them.
The questions are really good, and cover the extent of environmental problems. I am also interested how many ideas are directed towards moving the rest of the world toward clean energy. The questions are really great to inform the public who watches CNN, but we know that that does not include Trump supporters. I went to an OLLI lecture which had plenty of data showing this media polarization. As Marshall McLuhan said “the media is the message.”
With the talk of electrification of autos, I found a site at euanmearns.com which does simple calculations like I do of what is necessary to supply the electricity for complete electric cars. For the US, there would be a 29% increase in generation, but also needed is a 44% increase in installed capacity, at a cost of $1.4 trillion. For the World, there would be an 18% increase in generation, but a 30% increase in installed capacity, at a cost of $5.0 trillion. By 2030, when there is a steady 2.7% increase in cars yearly as now, the increase in generation would be 26%, the increase in installed capacity would be 44%, at a cost of $7.3 trillion.
Several speakers or audience members bemoaned that you have to be well off to install rooftop solar. In California, all of the utilities have 100% Green or 100% Solar plans. My 100% Solar increases my monthly bill by only about 15%, and some plans are virtually free. All it took was a few key clicks to switch to it.
Having thought more about methane pollution, industries have been really exposed when they do not control leaks. There have been several scary gas pipeline explosions, and oil pipeline leaks. The largest natural gas reserve in California at Aliso Canyon or Porter Ranch leaked for months and sickened people in neighborhoods around it. Not only was the company billed for dislocations, but a strong movement arose to get rid of such natural gas filled reservoirs. These are strong incentives for the industry to want and to follow strict regulations. The leak caused SoCal Gas $120 million.
People had hoped that with climate change and increased Atlantic heating, that increased winds would actually disrupt tropical storms, so that there might be fewer, and that they will be weaker. Dorian, the second strongest Atlantic hurricane, just threw a wrench in that vision. There is still the speculation that climate change could disrupt the Gulf Stream that brings warm waters to heat Europe in the winter. Back to Doonbeg.
I spent an hour watching what was supposed to be an introduction to the debates, but it covered everything but climate change. I expect with the slick political presenters, they will take this opportunity to discuss whatever they need to in order to make political points.
One great thing about almost all of the Democratic candidates, is that they are clear speakers. You don’t have to worry about narcissism, insults, reckless charges, or outright exaggerations and lies. What a relief.
I sort of remember that during the 2016 campaign, the major networks only covered climate change for about 40 minutes, total. What a change.
Today, Dorian is a CAT 2 but with winds at times achieving CAT 3. It has spread to 70 miles radius for hurricane storm winds, and 175 mile radius to tropical storm winds.
