Jindal: "Protecting people and property from volcanoes is STUPID!!!!"

[ck4829]

After President Obama's speech on the economy last night, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal criticized government spending in the stimulus bill, citing examples including "$140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.'"

The $140 million to which Jindal referred is actually for a number of projects conducted by the United States Geological Survey, including volcano monitoring. This monitoring is aimed at helping geologists understand the inner workings of volcanoes as well as providing warnings of impending eruptions, in the United States and in active areas around the world where U.S. military bases are located, such as the Philippines.

Among the scenarios in which the USGS's monitoring can assist - the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, which killed 57 people (including a geologist monitoring the mountain) and was the deadliest and costliest volcanic eruption in U.S. history ($2.74 billion in 2007 dollars). This event was preceded by thousands of earthquakes in the two months before the volcano blew its top; some of these prompted the Governor of Washington to declare a state of emergency and many residents were evacuated from a designated danger zone.

About 50 volcanic eruptions occur around the world every year, according to the USGS. The United States ranks third, behind Indonesia and Japan, in its number of historically active volcanoes (those for which written accounts exist). Most U.S. volcanoes are located in the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, with the rest distributed around the West.

Volcano monitoring likely saved many lives - and significant money - in the case of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (where the United States has military bases), according to the USGS.

The cataclysmic eruption lasted more than 10 hours and sent a cloud of ash as high as 22 miles into the air that grew to more than 300 miles across.

The USGS spent less than $1.5 million monitoring the volcano and was able to warn of the impending eruption, which allowed authorities to evacuate residents, as well as aircraft and other equipment from U.S. bases there.

The USGS estimates that the efforts saved thousands of lives and prevented property losses of at least $250 million (considered a conservative figure).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/govjindalfollowupwhatisvolcanomonitoring

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. And I'm sure the people who were washed away by the frikkin

tsunami are laughing at the worlds efforts to install a buoy based early warning system for them. Moron.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. "Something called volcano monitoring".

ROFLOL...

Priceless!

[eShirl]

3. I'm surprised Bush never put him in charge of FEMA

[HereSince1628]

4. I'm guessing he'll not get much support from Hawaii during his presidential campaign

It's inreverse NIMBY, If.Not.In.My.Back.Yard it then ut isn't worth spending money on.

[Ganja Ninja]

8. His presidential hopes died last night.

He might be somebody's VP pick but there's no way he runs for president after last nights disaster

[tjwash]

12. Palin-Jindal in 2012!!!

It'll be HUGH!!!111!

That may be the one ticket that would ensure all 50 states go blue.

[Marrah_G]

5. This one line was a massive blunder. It's like Palin is his speech writer.

[Warpy]

6. I suggest we look into his life insurance coverage

as an idea of how much he thinks his own life is worth. Then we can multiply it by the number of people in the path of, say, Mt. Ranier should it erupt and get a realistic figure of how much we should spend monitoring that volcano.

Odd that these men find their own lives worth a great deal while no one else's life is worth a cent.

[Jim__]

7. Because if Bobby Jindal doesn't know why we do it ...

then, obviously, it's not worth doing.

[zipplewrath]

10. Remember the tire gauges?

You'd think they'd learn. They make fun of Obama's "inflate your tires" comment, and then have to back pedal when in fact it is a huge savings in fuel economy. Now, they want to make fun of volcano research, when they were the party unprepared for Katrina. Pretty soon they'll find a way to point out they were unprepared for 9/11.

[corruptmewithpower]

9. Yellowstone caldera erupts, Jindal 's up to his dumb ass in ash.

[tjwash]

11. You liberals and your fancy-pants weather satellites and seismic machine-a-thingies.

In my day, we took a leak out the window, and if it froze that meant a blizzard was a-coming.

[Cha]

13. The people near Volcanoes

don't think so and the people like me who have loved ones near Volcanoes don't think so.

But, Jindal has nothing so he chose Volcanos to fucking pick on..creepy coward.

[TornadoTN]

14. The real message here is "SCIENCE IS BAD:

It's not about Volcano's - it's all about making sure that Science and basic reasoning is squashed. It's the only way the right wing survives.

[npincus]

15. yeah, and so is hurricane monitoring.

Stupid fucking asshole.