Journal of Anectdotal Evidence: Hurricane Bertha

I made up the "Journal of Anecdotal Evidence" as a farce, something to laugh about and a place to send manuscripts on what a researcher that s/he heard somewhere, somehow, sometime. So at least I'm up front about it. It seems as though there have been extreme weather reports, some of which reach biblical proportions. So I won't catch them all, but will try to post what I do see.

So here is an example that in and of itself doesn't prove anything, but is fascinating anyway. There are excellent web sites out there including Accuweather (too pricey for me, I'm afraid, but great content and experts), and one of the perhaps lesser known is wunderground.com that I believe began at the University of Michigan (Go Bucks!). There is a blog about tropical weather, and we have at least one oddity already in the young hurricane season.

(c) 2008, wunderground.com, accessed 19 July 2008.

According to the National Weather Service (6:15 PM EDT, 19 July 2008)

For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico...

The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Hurricane
Bertha...located about 450 miles east-southeast of Cape Race
Newfoundland.

What?! A hurricane that far north? And that's not all. According to Reuters, accessed 6:23 PM 19 July 2008:

MIAMI, July 18 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened again into a hurricane on Friday as it accelerated toward the northeast over the open Atlantic, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The top sustained winds of the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season had increased to 75 miles per hour (120 km per hour), just over the threshold at which tropical storms are upgraded, the Miami-based center said at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT).

Bertha, an unusually resilient storm that appears likely to enter the history books as one of the longest-lived Atlantic storms on record [emphasis added], was no threat to land.

I am not a meteorologist, but I am a bit of a weather fanatic (meaning I'm very interested in it). It's this kind of extreme, "longest-lived Atlantic storms on record," that I will post as I see them. Briefly noted, there has been a back and forth about whether global warming will make hurricanes more fierce. A current research report just released goes back to the notion that hurricanes will be more fierce:

The nation can adapt to the changes that will result, the EPA report says, but it will have to weather heat waves and downpours, strengthened hurricanes, heat waves, air pollution and droughts. Source: http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Environmental_Protection_Agency_Warns_Of_Climate_Change_Toll_On_Health_20562.html, accessed 19 July 2008.

The report was issued on July 17 and reportedly was deliberately held back when it was ready to be presented in April. The document has extreme predictions about the effects of Global Warming, and this is an agency run by the Bush Administration (which probably explains the delay, but makes the dire predictions all the more striking).

News Reports: Global Warming Correlates With Kidney Stones

It seems that scientists who were at liberty to conduct their research without being beholden to a stakeholder in the chaos (I think the discussion about global warming should be called "chaos" almost as in the Get Smart TV series and recent film in which "KAOS," the bad guys [e.g., the USSR/KGB] existed to stir things up and "CONTROL" [U.S./CIA] existed to counter KAOS's nefarious activities) are far more likely to accept global warming as an existing condition and are moving on to how we can do something about it.

Nevertheless, what appears to be a very vocal minority has done an excellent job of grabbing the megaphone. Search youtube.com for "global warming" skeptics and you will find video programs, very professionally produced, in which those skeptics (KAOS) are calling the science behind global warming community (CONTROL) as "lies." I'm a research professor and can tel you that if you can critique another's research (peer-reviewed research) and find fault, calling the other researcher a "liar" is pretty outrageous. This lowbrow reaction to global warming research appeals to people in the world who, for whatever reason including political ones, grab the "liars!" quotes and amplify them.

Separating the Smoke from the Fire

It's nothing new for someone or a group of people with a political agenda that they want to put on stage. Blogs evolved into opinion sites and so it is not surprising that activists that want to clear or blur the "truth" about the phenomenon of global warming would adopt this new form of communication and, they hope, persuasion. A site that makes its purpose well know is called "Rising Tide" at http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/ (accessed 17 July 2008). On that site, they list on the right side of the screen:

About

• What is Rising Tide NA?


• Our Principles


• Get Involved


• Stay Updated


• Past Actions & Activities


• Press Releases & Media


• Publications & Multimedia


• Marea Creciente en Español


• Contact Us

The site was accessed 17 July 2008 and included in the "About" section is this paragraph:

What is Rising Tide?

Rising Tide is an international network born out of the conviction that corporate-friendly and state-sponsored “solutions” to climate change will not save us. As a matter of survival, we must decrease our dependence on the industries and institutions that are destroying the planet and work toward community autonomy and sustainable living.

The problem is not all blogs are so crystal clear. In creating a taxonomy of blogs related to global warming, finding a prominent and truthful "About Us" would seem to be a good thing. Let's see, how can we test this theory. Without knowing, I would assume the political movement, GreenPeace, probably is on the side of those who want to change, for example, the amount of CO2 artificially put into the atmosphere by human activities including all fossil fuel powered motors (lawn mowers, for example, add their share of pollutants in the air). OK, let's see if GreenPeace has a blog on global warming or a position statement from their web site.

NOAA Predicts Extreme Weather

Scientific Assessment Captures Effects of a Changing Climate on Extreme Weather Events in North America posted at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080619_climatereport.html on 19 June 2008.