Weather disasters seen costly sign of things to come

[defendandprotect]

Weather disasters seen costly sign of things to come

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is on a pace in 2011 to set a record for the cost of weather-related disasters and the trend is expected to worsen as climate change continues, officials and scientists said on Thursday.

"The economic impact of severe weather events is only projected to grow," Senator Dick Durbin said at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and Government, which he chairs. "We are not prepared. Our weather events are getting worse, catastrophic in fact."

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, held a hearing on the role of government in mitigating the economic impact of weather disasters as Republicans in the House of Representatives were considering an appropriations bill with a number of riders designed to curtail environmental regulation.

As of June, the United States has seen eight weather disasters exceeding $1 billion each in damage, and the annual hurricane season has hardly begun, said Kathryn Sullivan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction and NOAA's Deputy Administrator.


http://news.yahoo.com/weather-disasters-seen-costly-sign-things-come-051840702.html

[Ship of Fools]

1. Bah! Humbug! Dontcha know that climate change is snake oil science?

Seeing how we had all that snow in 2010???????????????????????????????????

AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Forkboy]

2. K&R

[daleanime]

3. Well, we could be doing something about this....

or we could use a fake budget 'crisis' to suck more money out of the working class.:banghead:

[Shagbark Hickory]

5. +!

[WCGreen]

4. I am NOT a global warming denier

I believe that we are contributing mightily to the increase in the global temperature and all that entails.

However, I think at least some of the damage that is caused by the weather now can be partially blamed on the march of civilization into areas that weather may have always been dangerous but no one lived out there...

[RandomKoolzip]

8. Oh, like Chicago?

We've had TERRIBLY extreme weather the last couple of years...is that because there's white people in New Guinea?

[daleanime]

9. Could be wrong....

but I believe he's referring to flood plains, swamps, coastal areas that have been build up, etc... Definitely something we should keep in mind when it's time to rebuild.

[WCGreen]

11. that is exactly what I was talking about,.... thank you....

[daleanime]

12. Your welcome....

it's too easy for short comments to be misconstrued.:hi:

[defendandprotect]

10. You mean like NO, Louisiana --- ? Or along the Mississippi? Or Japan?

There's a 50 year gap in the effects we've felt of Global Warming --

we are now only feeling the effects up to about 1960!

Global Warming has the power to change weather patterns -- including oceans and

every other system. Global Warming will cause droughts/floods, storms, hurricanes,

cyclones, tornados -- and earthquakes.

Glacier melting will increase the number of earthquakes and their severity.


That's why the government in Fukushima and their scientists wanted to close down

the nuclear reactors there -- they were old, they were built to withstand only 7.0

quakes -- and Japanaese scientists were detecting increasing seismic activity in

earthquake-prone Japan. Imagine the suffering we would have all been saved had those

plants been closed down -- and, btw, it takes one full year to properly shut them down!


Here in America we have 106 nuclear reactors which seem to take six months to shut down --

though I don't know if that includes the WASTE -- ???


It's something we should get busy doing here --

May be the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- !!

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, defendandprotect.

[rrneck]

7. k&r. good thread. nt