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LM Otero / AP
This property at Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas, was among the hundreds destroyed by a massive wildfire there in August and September.
Just last August the federal officials who track weather disasters said 2011 would go down as a record year with 9 events topping $1 billion in damages. On Wednesday, those same authorities upped the number to 12 events -- totalling $52 billion in damages --and said there's still a chance for one or two more to be added to the list.
"In my weather career spanning four decades, I've never seen a year quite like 2011 ... record-breaking extremes of nearly every conceivable type of weather," National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes said in a statement accompanying the new figures.
The National Climatic Data Center said more detailed accounting led to these newcomers:
- Texas, New Mexico, Arizona wildfires (Spring-summer-fall). These had been incorporated into a broader disaster category in the August report (See below under Southern Plains/Southwest drought), but were pulled out when damages exceeded $1 billion, with five deaths.
- Midwest/Southeast tornadoes (June 18-22). New numbers now put damages at $1.3 billion, with three deaths from an estimated 81 twisters.
And two other events are nearing that mark:
- Northeast pre-Halloween storm (Fall). This "has a 50/50 chance of exceeding $1 billion," center forecaster Adam Smith tells msnbc.com. "It may be a stretch to indicate that this winter storm is 'likely' to surpass the mark. But we will have an update on this in next month's update."
- East Coast Tropical Storm Lee (Fall). "At this point, the data suggest that the damage from Tropical Storm Lee has an unlikely (less than 50/50) chance to reach the $1 billion mark," Smith added.
The events followed a report last August that listed 9 events topping $1 billion for the year. A few days later, Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast, causing $7.3 billion in damages, claiming 45 lives, and bringing the total to 10 events.
The old record was 9 events, set in 2008.
Moreover, the annual average has gone way up. In the 1980s, the U.S. averaged just over one weather disaster a year, the center stated. In the 1990s, the average was 3.8 a year -- and that jumped to 4.6 in the 2000s and 7.5 in the past two years.
When the August report was released, Hayes called the rising frequency and cost of extreme weather a "new reality."
The higher costs are due partly to a rising population, with more people and more buildings in environmentally vulnerable areas, such as coastal regions, Hayes told reporters.
Asked if global warming was to blame for the rising frequency of wild weather, Hayes called that "a research question" and that it would be difficult to link any one severe season to overall climate change.
But by Wednesday, he was ready to consider a bigger picture. "With our changing climate, the nation must be prepared for more frequent extreme weather in the future," he said in a video statement that was part of an "Extreme Weather 2011" website.
August report on billion-dollar disasters
Wednesday's report also updated figures for the earlier 9 events:
- Upper Midwest flooding (Summer). Losses exceeded $2 billion, with at least 5 deaths.
- Mississippi River flooding (Spring-summer). $3-4 billion in damage, 2 deaths.
- Southern Plains/Southwest drought, heat wave (Spring-summer). Total direct losses are near $10 billion.
- Midwest/Southeast tornadoes (May 22-27). An estimated 180 tornadoes caused 177 deaths, most in Joplin, Mo., and $9.1 billion in damage.
- Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest tornadoes (April 25-30). An estimated 305 tornadoes left 327 dead and caused $10.2 billion in damage.
- Midwest/Southeast tornadoes (April 14-16). An estimated 160 tornadoes killed 38 people and caused $2.1 billion in damage.
- Southeast/Midwest tornadoes (April 8-11). An estimated 59 tornadoes caused $2.2 billion in damage.
- Midwest/Southeast tornadoes (April 4-5). An estimated 46 tornadoes left 9 dead and caused $2.8 billion in damage.
- Central/East Groundhog Day Blizzard (Jan. 29-Feb. 3). The storm was tied to 36 deaths and caused $1.8 billion in damage.
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All these Billion dollars disasters pale in comparison to the year after year after year Trillion dollar disasters which are Obama's fault.
Leave it to the idiots to turn a weather article into a political debate. Sir, you are neither a weatherman nor an economist. Stick to what you know, if anything.
GIZMOWIZ:
Um, you mean like the two UNFUNDED WARS that are now estimated to cost us in the TRILLIONS. Are those the TRILLIONS you are referring to??? Iraq along is now estimated to cost us between 2 to 3 Trillion.
Have you forgotten:
"The war will only cost us 40 to 50 Billion"
"The Iraqi oil production will pay for the war"
"We'll be greeted as Liberators"
"Mission Accomplished"
"Your either with us or with the terrorists"
"Bring it on"
And you have the gaul to lay blame at the feet of Obama? After what your clowns did to this nation over a period of 8 years, it's miraculous that Dubya and draft dodging Cheney are not in prison. To add insult to injury your boy Dubya cut taxes for the rich at the same time he decided to wage 2 wars and you wonder why we're broke??? LOL
Stop the glue sniffing and get a clue, you ignoramus.
You've got that slightly wrong. The pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the big tax cuts for rich people, started under Dubya Bush's watch. It would be very hard to waste more money than that.
hahahah to the idiot at the top
Republican denial of their responsibility for the wars, for the economic crash, and for increasing global warming is reaching psychotic proportions. It's the South that's getting hammered, and it's the South that put the Republicans in a position to cause these disasters. Let's go with the Republican plan to stop Federal aid for disasters - the South deserves it. The map above might as well be a map of voting choices. Red = disaster and Republican voters.
All these Billion dollars disasters pale in comparison to the year after year after year Trillion dollar disasters which are Bush's fault.
We know, that's why were in this mess.
LMAO
What an ignoramus you are.
The trillions in disaster lay squarely at the feet of the republicans, who did everything they could over the last two decades to get rich at everyone else's expense, by slashing taxes, pursuing war for profit, allowing deregulation to run us into the ground, and bending over to spread their a55cheeks for the invasion of The Corporate campaign contribution injection.
Obama has saved us from an even worse mess.
What an ignorant fool you are.
The last I checked, La Nina is expected to continue though winter. It's expected to be weaker than last year, but the weather conditions in North America are likely to be similar to last year.
I blame the Republicans for all these natural disasters. B@stards didn't pray hard enough. Back in the earlier years it was much cheaper to rebuild. Things like wood were on the free market instead of the stock market, talk about mark ups!
Mark VanGelder-1693883
The last I checked, La Nina is expected to continue though winter. It's expected to be weaker than last year, but the weather conditions in North America are likely to be similar to last year.
And if you leave your blinders on you wont notice a single change in the weather.
Considering where most of those billions were spent (see map), any of you yankees regret winning that war?
3 2 1 collapsed.
GET A GRIP PEOPLE....Obama has continued with the failed Bush policies, a middle east policy of war that continues to cost the U.S. trillions. He has encouraged unsubstainable legal and illegal imigration that has contributed to high unemployment, low wages and high unemployment. He has inflated our currency through high energy cost and helped bring down the standard of living and the quality of life fo most Americans.
Don't forget the Wall Street bailouts that both Obama and Bush supported.....
Obama has failed...just like Bush before him.
Everyone below is talking about how Bush wasted money etc..., but as I remember, all the Democrats and Republicans were all gung ho for the "Pointless" wars against those who harbored Osama Bin Laden (remember him? The guy who collapsed the world trade centers?) and against Saddam Hussein (the psycho who gassed one hundred thousand Kurds, attacked his neighbors, was given ultimatums by the U.N. and repeatedly reneged, lied, hid the weapons on the list of ones to be destroyed). I remember 5 times Bush giving Saddam Hussein chances to keep the war from happening, Saddam would agree and then we would find him doing the same old crap anyway and trying to hide it and lie. I dont think You liberals are seeing anything correctly. Maybe when your representatives and Senators were voting for the war you were enraged and petitioning to stop the madness? No? You were watching the shock and awe on T.V. with slack jaws? Hmm.
Lets look at bailouts.... Thieving banks and corperations screw everything up, running our economy into the ground and Obama says; "Well, lets just give those guys every last penny we have left and will have for the foreseeable future! That'll show them not to rip us off anymore, heck, such a good lesson learned that we wont even prosecute em!"
Um, if you dont know your behind from a hole in the ground and you attempt to run a country, cause and effect catches up with you.
Maybe try airing on the side of caution once in a while, being prudent and wise, taking responsibility for your actions in humility and honesty. Wait, is that too much like Jesus for you? You want to kill some babies, or old folks instead? Calling it right to die and freedom of choice? Or would you rather destroy marriage first? Wreak havoc on the infrastructure that creates a strong society. Yeah, I bet you think that it wont cause any problems at all...
When is everyone going to get it. You all keep blaming Bush And Obama for all our troubles when nothing can be done without the big losers of our country, congress and the senate. These are the people that hold the trump card against the president, no matter who he or she is. As for the want to be republicans in this country, there second to blame. A poll puts about 10 percent of all registered republicans are true republicans. The rest of them want to be someone they will never be, which helps greatly in ruining this country.
Yea, I guess Bush should have did like clinton and just ask the terrorist to please stop flying planes into Americas building. If clinton would have bombed the terrorist camps every time they bombed Americans around the world when he was in office they wouldn't have perceived us as week and probably wouldn't have bombed the World trade Center. They tested us when clinton was President and since we just kept turning the other cheek they figured that we was too scared of them and they could get away with hitting us in the States. What they didn't figure on was that President Bush wasn't a candy $%s. The only thing Bush did wrong was to stay in Iraq too long. We should have left as soon as saddam was beaten and let the next Government know that if they mess with us then we will come and kick their butts too.
Cheney planned and executed 9/11. The "Muslims" had no chance of pulling off the hijacking of American fly by wire aircraft, unless we assisted them.
The WTC bombing in 1993 was done with the foreknowledge of the FBI.
Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11/2001. if we wanted him removed from power, that mission could have been accomplished in one evening for the cost of about $80 million and no, zero, American deaths or casualties.
I'd just like to put everyone's mind at rest. Nothing to worry about here. Move along folks, nothing here to see.
I think this confirms once and for all that "Climate Change" is a hoax, created by liberal, socialist, anti Jesus, anti American, haters of democracy. Just because the last few years have seen the most violent and wildly fluctuating weather patterns in the last century, should cause you no alarm.
Please feel free to resume your wanton pollution of our nation and planet. No harm, no foul. What's the worst that could happen??? As if some deep sea oil rig could suffer a massive failure that would take weeks to cap. Absurd, sane, rational minds know that a scenario like this could never occur. So, by all means, continue with strip mining of coal and my personal favorite, blowing the caps off mountains with huge amounts of explosives.
It's only the tree huggers who are offended by this and we all know they're crazy and have not a clue as to what they are talking about.
Nah, it's impossible for humans to affect our own climate, everyone knows that God controls the weather. Just like He used to control the seasons before we understood axial tilt. Obviously, He is punishing us for <insert whatever our government has done that I don't agree with>.
Ozzie Boy, I hope most of that was sarcasim. Good sumation of years events. As for pollution of our planit, don't forget our radiation power plants. They are totally safe of course. (ignore the Japan event hmm) The ones in th US are good to go.
just how about we all own horses again ..how about that..just
Ernie the Spoon
The Guy upstairs is probably punishing Florida for all those hanging chads that got the Shrub his first term. Everything else is what the Pentagon would call collateral damage (piss-poor aim).
Ozzie Boy-2719086
Considering there isn’t a single governmental agency or scientific organization that says anything but Global Weather Climate Change is man made.
But there are plenty of couch climatologists and morons still pretending.
BTW there is no such thing as global warming.
Poor Ozzie. It's so hard to get satire through on the internet. I got it, even if several of the other morons missed it. I lol'd too.
Cav; I pretty sure they all got it - sarcasm requires an open mind, which is why us liberals love MSNBC. Now if we could just close our boarders to conservatives who come here.
How does one get a job as weather disaster averager? averager will be the catch phrase of 2012.
My life is so boring - I'm never in the path of destruction - so much for my desire to be a super hero.
correction; averager will be the catch word of 2012. see, it's working, I'm at 50%...which is far better than my Little League average. Thank gawd they didn't have averagers back then - I longed to reach the Mendoza level.
I'd swear that map was a political map! Look at Colorado! If it were for the fact that Wyoming went Republican last election, I'd say it WAS the political map! (We kicked both of the Republicans out of Colorado.)
After all is said and done and Perry doesn't get re-elected as TX governor he can hire himself out for prayer. After all that's what he said to Texans during the raging fires...pray.
Oh and there's NOT a money back guarantee......
It's ironic that the bumpkins who insist that climate change is a hoax are, so far, it's biggest victims; the red on that map looks just like their voting patterns. I say no more disaster relief for conservative states if their representatives are going to dispute the science; they shouldn't be relying on big-government for handouts anyway....but if you take a look at this chart you can see they are, in fact, the biggest hogs at the government trough!
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http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/fed-tax-sentspent-by-state/
Just how will our country be able to respond to these disasters under a so-called 'balanced budget' amendment? Most states with a BBA still run deficits. Where will $52 billion come from? What would get cut next to repay this huge amount with a 'no-taxes' pledged government and further reduced revenues from overtaxed business and the job creators? Revenues from taxes at the top are at record low levels already.
Based on studies of the solar cycles it appears that so-called extreme weather is heliocentric (England's MET). Currently U.S. has not had a major hurricane (cat 3 & above) reach landfall for over 2232 days, which is a record. Also of interest is 9 of deadliest 10 floods in U.S. took place before 1975. Rising sea levels are actually 90% less than IPCC's projections. Lastly, actual temperatures on earth have remained flat for last 13 years according to GISS and ECU.
Mr. greenjeans
Lastly, actual temperatures on earth have remained flat for last 13 years according to GISS and ECU.
That would be 100% untrue, but all the posts on the subject here are mainly from couch climatologists interpreting the data for every one else, as if they were scientists.
Most of it is anecdotal evidence which comes from the ego designed to make humans feel better.
After all if they cant change it, they didn’t do it right?
The opposite is true however while the stats by them self mean very little when the world ice is disappearing, the oceans are rising, and so is the average world wide temperature.
Its not about how much, but it is about "its happening".......... and it is man made.
ChrisD
You have not made a statement refuting England's MET study on the effects of solar cycles on extreme weather. Please explain how they err.
Please inform the readers (since we are couch climatologists and not scientifically enlightened like you) what is the total atmospheric percentage of carbon and what percent of that is man made. Always a good starting point.
I'm sure all but a few (You, Hansen, Mann and Jones (hide the decline!) agree that the earth's temperature has remained relatively unchanged since 1998 but you can put up your data for all to see here. I named my sources.
The sea level has risen 90% less than the IPCC projections: True
9 of 10 deadliest floods happened before 1975: true
No major hurricanes hitting USA land for 2232 days -a record: true
If you are keen on exposing "anecdotal" evidence then please watch An Inconvenient Truth or read the so-called peer reviewed IPCC fourth assessment report. Maybe start with the predicted loss of all ice and snow in the Himalayas (followed by grant money to Pachauri). Or check in with Science Czar Holdren and ask him about his past predictions of a certain global cooling catastrophe from the 1970s and his lovely book with Ehrlich.
Professor Emeritus of Biogeography Philip Stott of the University of London explained the crux of the entire global warming debate when he rebutted the notion that CO2 is the main climate driver.
“As I have said, over and over again, the fundamental point has always been this: climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables, and the very idea that we can manage climate change predictably by understanding and manipulating at the margins one politically-selected factor (CO2), is as misguided as it gets,” Stott wrote.
Anecdotes are for YOUR digestion and discussion.
Not me.
But keep splitting hairs, there aren't any.
I'm sure you will convince some out there, start with Faux Noise watchers.
But couch discussions like yours is best done on the couch.
You placed the wool over your own eyes, only you can remove it.
Funny how you again choose not to respond to empirical facts and pull out the old I'm too smart to discuss things with you couch people.
I suggest you continue to follow the great Al Gore and Bill McKibbon, give them donations to spread the word (and perhaps purchase yet another mansion that has an enormous carbon footprint). I'll continue to slum around with Richard Lindzen, et al.
You placed the wool over your own eyes, only you can remove it. But you won't because it's a religion to your ilk.
Funny how your couch education is qualified to read or interpret reports for the rest of us.
I never DEBATE the finer points of BS.
And we believe you too?
Stick to cooking or washing cars, or what ever you do for a living and leave the science to those who do science for a living.
The real people in this world already know there is no scientific agency or governmental organization that doesn’t already know the facts,..... Global Weather Change is real, its here, and its man made.
Go pedal your pseudo tripe to Faux Noise.
They always have an opening for anyone who comes with their blinders already installed.
Al Gore and Bill McKibbon, WHO?
Thanks for proving my point.
The only point you have is the one on your head.
You won it at the fair and it came with the title, armature climate scientific reader.
Now you know, Faux Noise has a job just for you.
Not a single Governmental Organization including the DOD, nor any Scientific Agency disagrees that Global Weather Change it here, its real, and its man made.
Wanna Bees are never taken serious let alone without a pinch of salt.
how the west was blowing .
how the west was blowing from the east..nah the republicans say the wind can just go ahead and blow to the west for a awhile change of scenery..republicans climate change logic
And I'd just like to point out that the vast majority of the 50 U.S. States have had over 8 of these disasters between 1980 and 2011, or an average of more than 1 every 4 years. So, to all those who have suggested over the course of this year that we all "move out the (enter disaster type here) belt" and to a "safe" place. . . Morons! I don't think the entire population of the U.S. is going to fit into those few "safe" states - most of which, by the way, have each had at least one major disaster over that same period of time anyway.
But, they could lower inhabitation of the hardest hit, most blatantly dangerous places... And, they could enforce building regulations that require buildings in such places be designed for the types of disasters the area is designed to hit the inhabitants with... For example, that huge flood in the east? Why the @!$%# were none of those houses designed to handle floods (f.e. stilt houses) while in geographic areas blatantly set up to flood? Pure stupidity. It's because most Americans think they and they're belongings are either magically undestructable, or that they could magically replace everything and be compensated despite all the resources that still get wasted via their original possessions that are now trash... Trash that most likely won't get recycled.
So, while I get your point... The only way you could convincingly make it was to exaggerate it to the utmost extreme, because your point is otherwise invalid.
Yes, there is global warming. I think that the hotter temperatures and lack of rain is not because of Oil or coal. The facts are everywhere you read. After paying attention for the last 2 years I have come to the educated guess that our Problem is from deforestation. think about everywhere there is extreme heat and drought the Hardwoods have been depleted. In the North West there are millions of Acres of Forrest and they are doing fine climate wise. I have also heard that Hardwood trees thrive on Carbon monoxide by drawing it in and putting out good clean air just like a filter.
apparently you don't know the difference between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Maybe you can look at this chart and figure out which states are the biggest gluttons of government money
Here's a hint - it ISN'T the liberal ones.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/fed-tax-sentspent-by-state/
Vote out all the TPers and GOP who still try to hoodwink this country into their phony religious and political ideals all the while they take the most from the taxpayers. Vote the GOP out and 'Let them eat cake' from here on out. Start with support for Wisconsin to RECALL Gov. Scott WALKER - a Koch bros. puppet.
@AnonymousArizonan: Uh, apparently you weren't reading the news or the commentary much back in April of this year. My comment was directed at people who suggested back then NOT that we should all live in tornado shelters but that we should all move out of the tornado belt. So, my comment was perfectly valid - it just might not have applied to you. This one will, though. While you can indeed build a more tornado-resistant house, most people don't want to live in an underground shelter. And, beyond that, it's damn difficult to make a house "tornado-proof." So, to reiterate the perfectly valid point I made without the least bit of exaggeration above, it's ridiculous to suggest that people move out of disaster-prone areas because just about every state in this country is prone to one sort of disaster or another.
If anybody knows how to raise the price of a disaster, it's FEMA and the federal government
If anybody knows how to spend government handouts it's republicans.
See for yourself
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/fed-tax-sentspent-by-state/
Thanks to all of you (and special kudos to Ernie the Spoon and Ozzie Boy) who used common sense by not employing revisionist history (a common Rethuglicon propaganda tactic) to take gizmowiz to task. He obviously has been living under a rock for the last 11 years or so or perhaps just landed on this planet.
These disasters seem to be happening with more frequency and ferocity and it appears clear that we humans should share in much of the blame for what ails our fragile world. This is it, folks. We have no other means of transiting our solar system. If we don't soon take draconian measures to stop the destruction of our rain forests and rein-in the ever burgeoning pollution that threatens to make this world uninhabitable within the next few generations, then one-celled organisms will yet again be at the top of the food chain and a billion years from now, our fossilized remains will be the only evidence of our ever having been here.
Actually, we are capable of space travel and terraforming... We even know which planets most probably hold what resources, and which planets are most likely earth-like. The only thing holding us back from things like space colonies and it being possible to escape Earth destroying disasters are technophobic Christians, who slow and eliminate space science as much as possible. (Probably because if other intelligent life were ever proven it would disprove Christianity. Plus, it's all "playing god" to them. Sort of like those drugs they rely on to remain alive despite they're poor genetic fitness, but sshh! Let's pretend medicine is somehow less of playing god than building a ship.)
(This is not to say I approve of destroying the planet we live on. I am 100% pro-green, and by that I don't mean trendy bull@!$%#, but that I am actually pro-solar, pro-organic, etc. Not "green" products or "green" nuclear... *shudders*)
If other intelligent life were discovered, how would that disprove Christianity?
Please don't put all Christians in one category. I for one have never come across anywhere in the Bible where as God said he only made man on Earth. ( of course it has been a long time since I have read it ) I also believe god gave us the knowledge to event the medical miracles we have today.
We think we know a lot, don't we. And if we don't know it then the Christians seem a good candidate for the blame. Do people really chew this stuff up and actually believe for a second that a group of religious folks can single-handedly put a halt to something as crucial as the survival of mankind? Christians are just people like anyone else. We say the Christians are so brain-washed that they believe downright ridiculous things, such as the second coming of Christ, yet they are so powerful that they're protests will ultimately become the blame for the destruction of the world? Here we are, mere humans and we poll our knowledge and put it all in a basket and call ourselves kings of this earth, and we just know it all. But the truth is we really don't know anything. I am a Christian. I thank God for medicine and doctors. I welcome any God-given knowledge (and I assure you that all knowledge is God-given) to move forward as a people who unite to make a difference in the world. I wouldn't protest efforts made to move the existence of man to another planet, and I'll tell you why...Because there is no limit to what God can do. And man can try to discredit the bible (the Word of God) if he wants to, but God won't allow it to be discredited. And with every attempt to do so, we just push ourselves that much closer to the day of His Son's return. See God doesn't necessarily need a Christian to try to stop things from happening. If He wants to stop it, He can do that all on His own. And believe me IF it doesn't line up with the Word of God, in His timing, He will.
First thing you notice about the chart, you can draw a straight line through the damage peaks...
Wait? I thought that illegal aliens had started those fires? So how are they counted as a natural disaster?
I didn't think of that one of the causes... lol But, I did also think along those lines about the fires... A lot of these fires are started by humans, not nature. Though, some are indeed nature caused. Grass becomes dry and flammable in drought, and can naturally catch fire. That's likely the fires they mean, though I've not seen anything on such fires in 2011, so weird. Though, they often don't plreport the mundane, to-be-expected issues of Arizona in Arizona... Because only non-Arizonans don't know things like... Arachnids (scorpions be arachnids) and reptiles can kill you or cause you to lose a digit or limb... Not drinking water can kill you... Heat itself can kill you... Heat itself can cause massive, out of control fires... etc.
Climate Scientists have warned for decades that the most devastating effect of global warming will be the billions of dollars that will need to be spent on weather disasters and coastal flooding. Are we seeing that now?
Obama is to blame, no doubt about it. He predicted that we could expect change, and I think that it's about the only thing he has been right about.
Take responsibility folks...we are all to blame for our climate being out of whack....and going to get worse.
(by the way...the bible warned of this....go on...check it out!)
Bible heck - common sense warned of it during the Industrial Revolution, but the plutocrats of the day didn't care who died in the coal mines and textile mills as long as they got rich, and all that's changed is that they've been forced to be a little more careful what they're seen doing because they're being watched more carefully. If the government stops regulating the industries, they'll go right back to dumping raw sewage in every river and having smokestacks belching soot in every city, because not having to give a damn about environmental damage which you won't live long enough to see is just more cost-efficient.
This problem has existed for a lot longer than Barack Obama, or even the country he's president of. The stage for this problem was set about 5000 years before the New Testament was ever written, back when human beings first decided that they deserved better than to live in caves and started building cities to house themselves, with latrine ditches nearby where their waste would concentrate and fester and create an uninhabitable toxic blight just downstream from the area that the people paid attention to. Back then people thought the world was unimaginably vast and there would always be more new places to move no matter how many places you destroyed. Now is when we pay the piper for the stupidity of our ancestors.
Neither politics nor religion has anything to do with it; it's the inevitable consequence of humanity continuing to obey the instincts of its caveman days even though the world has changed beyond recognition. People used to hoard because it was the difference between life and death; they haven't yet figured out that the whole situation has turned on its head and that we now need to own less, not more, if we're to have any chance of surviving in the world we've built for ourselves.
hey gitmo wiz . . . got it ?
obama rocks !
better stock up on prozac . . . it's gonna be 5 more years till 2016 !
population takes a seat in the second row of reasons why our disasters are costing billions, inflation is the number one... the prices of bldg materials is outrages compared to the good old days, you know the days when we had more farmlands, less people, more resources, less gouging, less seperation between poverty and upper class. whatever anylist wrote this report. I WANT YOUR JOB... so we can put some correct graphics and accurate contributing factors....
Don't forget our trillion dollar disaster, called the Obama presidency.
You mean Bush right? Obama's the guy who had to FIX the trillion dollar disasters that the cretin from Crawford and the Tom Delay congress created.
What's the matter with all these science geniuses!
When the BP disaster hit in July 2010, I ran out in the heat of the summer and bought a snow plow. WHY? because it was easy to see that the oil slick covered over a million square miles of the GULF. what happens when you have a dark spot? It absorbs heat. The temperature of waters in the GULF must have risen. Therefore the moisture and the heat would HAVE TO COME Up the MISSISSIPPI RIVER and cause Tornadoes in the mid-section of the country. Wind patterns carry the moisture to EAST Coast and viola severe winter snows.
NOW why couldn't the smart ass weather scientist figure this out???
Hope and change ..sign this bill.
In the article 3 deaths and 81 twisters. They didn't read the paper or watch the news about Joplin MO. WOW how clueless they are about the worst single twister in decades.....Ooooohhh they caught it in the last stats of the article...
anyone else notice it says 2001 and not 2011 for the story title on msn?
I was wondering when someone would comment on that...
Cue the nutcases trotting out the Book of Revelations in 3, 2, 1....
What about the TVA ash spill into the Tennessee River that they are still cleaning up? That was Billions I think? But it has been kept hush.
These weather events are powerful indeed, but not nearly powerful enough to prevent us humans from making stupid choices, like siting permanent dwellings on barrier islands ( my home state of NJ is front and center in this phenomenon ), squandering water as though the supply was limitless, and drilling for oil in environmentally fragile areas.
When is the frigging federal government going to get out of the diaster relief business. Where in the Constitution does it say we have to pay for people's stupidity when they choose to live in a flood zone, on the coast on in forests. Live with the consequences of flood, fire and hurricanes. Take personal responsibility. And the Corps of Engineers could be eliminated by the US government getting out of the dam building, channelizing major rivers, building sea walls etc. If people don't buy the proper insurance, they deserve a handout. I never understood why the federal government feels so compelled to bail us out.
They do it to justify the high tax they still from us. Don't blame the government blame the people that elected them over and over and the ones that beg for socialism.
Yeah like the "conservative" states that soak up 150% more tax revenue in government allocation money than they pay in taxes and have the GALL to say they pay too much in taxes.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/fed-tax-sentspent-by-state/
Just keep it up, denialists. It is only a matter of time before the WORLDWIDE costs from these disasters eventually comes due on those nations most responsible for climate change, once the legal case can be made in international court. Trust me, ya'll, eventually the scientific evidence WILL BE THERE to make the legal case for many TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in damages worldwide! - Rick Carter
((Most of you have no intention of ever listening to any kind of sound logic, DO YOU? Because the majority of you are hopelessly infected with your viral terminal religious belief systems. Goodbye!)) - RC
Oh, gee, I almost forgot to mention that very recently the Obama administration COMPLETELY DISCREDITED ME! Yes, for all practical intents and purposes, the Obama White House has effectively portrayed me as a TOTAL NUTCASE !!! Based upon the Obama administration's latest official statement, from here on out everyone in the entire world is fully justified, now and forevermore, in calling me, Rick Carter, the worst liar and deceiver, even THE WORST HERETIC, BLASPHEMER AND APOSTATE PERSON who has ever lived on the face of the Earth. Please see below.
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Obama team: No evidence of extraterrestrial life
By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Nov 06, 2011
The White House says there is no evidence of life beyond Earth -- and no cover-up by the government -- but scientists are still searching.
"The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," writes an Obama administration official on the White House website.
Phil Larson, who works on space policy and communications at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, also writes that "there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."
President Obama's White House responded to a petition claiming a government cover-up of contact with space life.
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(What else can I possibly say but have a nice "End Time", ya'll!) - RC
GeoEngineering!!! Thanks to the psychopath, greedy elites....
Gee!!! Give me back the old days without internet. When I didn't know a damn thing. Thinking everything is great. Where the heck do they find all this money? They say they are broke and spend billions They say they don't have the money for welfare, medical, social security, but their goes another billion. They start wars in two countries we didn't belong in and spend trillion. They give billions to countries that don't like us. They give the gambling banks trillion, so they can gamble some more. Even the Federal Reserve in secret gave the banks trillions also. But they are fighting over giving us a 1000.00 tax break next year, like it will kill them financially. Now they look in there wallets for 2 billion more for 2011 disasters. Each millionaire that's running for president receives millions of donations from the other millionaires. The politicians gets 240,000 a year and overnight they are multi-millionaires. They get out of office and become lobbyists making millions of dollars more. Us little guys are losing wages and jobs. While the party of NO could care less. Ohio and Wisconsin republican governors are trying to abolish unions and laying off teachers. It's like the rich are on a full force of destroying us. Sticking it to us straight in our face, while of course the politicians which is apart of the rich and the companies and banks are smiling.
Other then that, everything is just fine. Thank you for letting me release myself onto you readers.
Deb I am in favor of cutting teachers salaries by half. Let's bring in bargain basement teachers, with less schooling, and show FIXED NEWS, at least 2 class hours a day. In two generations we will cure the education problem in America. How could it hurt? Mickey D's already uses a picture type cash register, to solve the education problem in its stores.
I an so glad of the 2010 election results. I woke up the middle class. It was the start to the finish of the Teagaggers and their Koch Brother US Chamber of Commerce funded agenda.
They should add the multi-trillion dollar national disaster that is Obama to the list.