Congressional Review Act might not be an option to fight EPA regs (subs. req’d)
Asked last weekend in a televised interview how he planned to stop U.S. EPA regulation of carbon — rules he says have the potential to inflict serious harm on the economy — House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton mentioned only one specific strategy: using the Congressional Review Act.
What the Michigan Republican did not mention is that the core EPA findings and rules related to carbon mitigation were published more than 60 continuous legislative days ago, making it impossible to nullify them through a resolution of disapproval under that act.
The congressman told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that a resolution of disapproval offers many advantages over standard legislation, especially because such a resolution can clear the Senate with a simple majority vote of 51.
“There’s also something called the Congressional Review Act, that within 60 days of rules being published, Congress can take this up and with an up-or-down vote, it is filibuster-proof in the Senate,” Upton said. “It has been used before.”
A CRA resolution of disapproval has been used successfully once before, in 2001, to scrap a Department of Labor rule on ergonomics.
But the deadline for using such a resolution has come and gone for most of the EPA climate regulations.
“Certainly, the key rules are already beyond the Congressional Review Act deadline,” said Jeff Holmstead of Bracewell & Giuliani, who served as an assistant administrator of EPA during the George W. Bush years.
EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide and other GHGs endanger human health — which forms the basis for their regulation under the Clean Air Act — was published in December 2009. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) targeted the endangerment finding with a resolution of disapproval in June, aided by a unanimous consent agreement that allowed her to bring the motion to the floor later than would usually be allowed. But the measure fell four votes short in the Senate and never had a serious chance of passing the House or of being signed into law by the president.
The resolution might have had a better chance this year, with Republicans taking control of the House and making major gains in the Senate. Upton even said in his Fox News appearance that he thought a resolution of disapproval could garner enough bipartisan support to overcome a presidential veto.
“Already we’ve seen a number of powerful Democrats indicate that they have real, real qualms about what the EPA is intending to do,” he said.
But support for the resolution is no longer the issue. The endangerment rule was followed in May by the “tailpipe” rule, which adopts new standards for car and light-truck emissions. Those rules support regulation of GHGs from stationary sources such as power plants and manufacturing facilities, as laid out in the so-called tailoring rule published last June.
Upton told E&E Daily yesterday that he understood Congress could not turn back the clock.
Pentagon Must ‘Buy American,’ Barring Chinese Solar Panels
The military authorization law signed by President Obama on Friday contains a little-noticed “Buy American” provision for the Defense Department purchases of solar panels “” a provision that is likely to dismay Chinese officials as President Hu Jintao prepares to visit the United States next week.
Although there are many big issues to discuss, including concerns about North Korea, trade and economic matters are certain to be high on the agenda. And while both sides are aiming to keep the discussion positive “” the United States is the world’s largest importer and China the largest exporter of goods “” simmering resentments over trade in green-energy technologies could be a distraction.
China has emerged as the world’s dominant producer of solar panels in the last two years. It accounted for at least half the world’s production last year, and its market share is rising rapidly. The United States accounts for $1.6 billion of the world’s $29 billion market for solar panels; market analyses typically have not broken out military sales separately.
The perception that Beijing unfairly subsidizes the Chinese solar industry to the detriment of American companies and other foreign competitors has drawn concern in Congress. The issue of clean-energy subsidies is also at the heart of a trade investigation under way by the Obama administration, which plans to bring a case against China before the World Trade Organization.
Although there are many big issues to discuss, including concerns about North Korea, trade and economic matters are certain to be high on the agenda. And while both sides are aiming to keep the discussion positive “” the United States is the world’s largest importer and China the largest exporter of goods “” simmering resentments over trade in green-energy technologies could be a distraction.
Casualties of Climate Change: Sea-level Rises Could Displace Tens of Millions (Subs. Req’d)
Since the beginning of recorded time, climate-forced migrations have reshaped civilization. Four thousand years ago a prolonged drought and the resulting famine in Canaan drove Jacob and his sons to Egypt, setting the stage for the famous exodus led by Moses. Three millennia later a prolonged dry period and lack of grazing lands helped to push Mongol armies out of Central Asia as far west as Europe, where many settled and intermarried. And in the 20th century the American Dust Bowl, an ecological catastrophe precipitated by drought and compounded by bad land-management policies, displaced 3.5 million people from the Midwest.
Today this age-old story has a new twist. We are entering an era marked by rapid changes in climate brought on by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Anticipated changes include higher rainfall variability, greater frequency of extreme events (such as droughts and floods), sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and long-term shifts in temperature and precipitation””any of which can profoundly disrupt the ecosystems that supply our basic needs. In our more densely settled world, people may be forced from their homes in numbers never seen before.
Alaska pipeline closed, oil prices rise
The Trans Alaska Pipeline was shut for a second day on Sunday because of a leak, with no indication of when it would reopen, sending oil prices higher on fears that a prolonged closure could restrict U.S. supplies.
The leak was discovered at the start of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay early Saturday, forcing oil companies to cut production to 5 percent of their average 630,000 barrels per day.
The shutdown of one of the United States’ key oil arteries, which carries about 12 percent of the country’s production, is the latest setback for 33-year old pipeline, which is becoming more expensive to maintain as it ages and handles less than a third of the oil it did at its peak in the 1980s.
U.S. crude futures rose about 1.7 percent, to $89.50 a barrel in early electronic trading in Asia.
Closures of the pipeline, although short, have provoked criticism of its operators, particularly major owner BP, whose reputation is already at an all-time low after the Gulf of Mexico blow-out last year, causing the largest-ever U.S. oil spill and attracting renewed government scrutiny of the oil production industry.
“This adds to what happened in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when U.S. regulators are still looking at regulations around oil drilling,” said Ben Westmore, commodities analyst at National Australia Bank. “Events like this carry risk around future regulation that could dramatically reduce supply on a more permanent basis than this temporary outage. There is a possibility the risk is pretty substantial for the (oil futures) market.”
The shutdown of the 800-mile (1,280 kilometer) line, which runs from the Prudhoe Bay oilfield to the tanker port of Valdez, has not yet affected shipments, and tankers are being loaded on schedule at Valdez, meaning there is no immediate danger of restricted oil supply. Oil produced during the shutdown will be stored at Prudhoe Bay until the pipeline reopens.
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, the operator of the pipeline which discovered the leak on Saturday morning, had no estimate of how much oil leaked, but none seems to have escaped beyond concrete encasing the pipeline at the intake pump station at Prudhoe Bay.
“The concrete encasement is why we don’t believe there’s any environmental impact,” said Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan. “Until we can excavate, we won’t be able to say that definitely.”
She provided no estimate of when the pipeline would reopen or when normal oil production could resume.
The wind industry’s largest trade group a few months ago rejected the idea of a “clean power” mandate on utilities that included nuclear, some coal and natural gas as options. But American Wind Energy has a new opinion today.
With talk starting about an energy bill, the wind influence group finds itself receptive to the policy it previously dismissed.
“We’re open to talking about anything at this point,” said Rob Gramlich, AWEA’s senior vice president of public policy.
The wind industry, along with other energy trade groups and companies, is re-examining its positions on the clean energy standard, or CES, along with other energy issues as it lobbies lawmakers in the new Congress. As advocacy begins, many are reconsidering a policy they had not backed before.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday he is starting work on a bill that would require utilities to generate a portion of power from clean energy, which would include renewables, nuclear and coal with carbon capture and sequestration. The CES is thought to be more popular with Republicans than the greens-only requirement called the renewable electricity standard, or RES.
At Least Some Politicians Get It
Advocates of federal action to address climate change had little to cheer about in 2010. The prospects may be even grimmer this year, with nearly every important committee chair in the now Republican-controlled House dismissing the threat of global warming or the human contribution to it.
As Congress dawdles and denies, some states are moving forward. Massachusetts recently announced a plan to curb emissions from homes, cars and factories by one-fourth below 1990 levels over 10 years “” considerably more aggressive than President Obama’s commitment in Copenhagen to reduce emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels. The plan relies on existing technologies to produce more power from renewable sources like wind, tougher energy-efficiency standards for buildings and more investments in mass transit.
Massachusetts will also benefit from its participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 2008 agreement among 10 Eastern states, including New York, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. These emissions have already dropped dramatically in the region, in part because utilities have been switching from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas.
The Massachusetts announcement follows California’s approval of a cap-and-trade program requiring 360 large enterprises, including refineries and power plants, to gradually reduce emissions to help achieve a statewide reduction of 15 percent from current levels by 2020 “” just under Mr. Obama’s target.
Climate Change May Continue for at Least a Millennium
Climate change may be unstoppable for the next millennium.
Rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere will affect the climate for at least another 1,000 years, based on a simulation by researchers at Canada’s University of Victoria and University of Calgary. That will cause the West Antarctic ice sheet to collapse by the year 3000 and raise sea levels by 4 meters (13 feet), it showed.
The study, published online in Nature Geoscience, is the first full climate model to make predictions so far into the future, the Calgary university said in a Jan. 9 statement. Researchers studied the length of time needed to reverse climate-change trends if the world stopped using fossil fuels and putting CO2 in the atmosphere as of 2010 and 2100.
“Ongoing regional changes in temperature and precipitation are significant following a complete cessation of carbon-dioxide emissions in 2100, despite almost constant global mean temperatures,” researchers led by Nathan P. Gillett at the Victoria university said.
The effects’ duration may be related to inertia in world oceans, with parts of the southern Atlantic Ocean beginning to warm only now as a result of CO2 emissions in the previous century, according to the researchers.
“The simulation showed that warming will continue, rather than stop or reverse, on the 1,000-year time scale,” Shawn Marshall, a geography professor at the University of Calgary, said in the statement.
More power to Iowa growing wind power
With all the health problems associated with coal-fired power plants, it is great to see another wind project begin in Iowa. Not only will MidAmerican be bringing new jobs into Iowa, it will also be replacing that much need for coal produced energy. That will help make Iowa a healthier place to live again.
Wind projects are already exporting our wind energy to other states. Expanding that is a good way to increase revenue being brought into the state.
China Sunergy Lands Deal for World’s Largest Solar Roof
China Sunergy (CSUN) has secured a 7 MW solar module supply contract with CEEG (Nanjing) Solar Energy Research Institute, for the Nanjing South Railway Station solar roof project. It’s the world’s largest stand-alone building integrated photovoltaic (“BIPV”) project for one structure and will be one of the most energy efficient public buildings in China. The company announced a big 120MW Italian solar supply deal just a couple weeks ago.
“China Sunergy is delighted to be the module supplier for the ‘largest stand-alone BIPV project in the world,” said Mr. Stephen Zhifang Cai, CEO of China Sunergy. “We are very happy to see our high-quality solar panels being used in this landmark project, which will certainly raise public awareness and appreciation of renewable energy. We look forward to playing an increasingly bigger role in building China’s eco-friendly projects.”
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Heavy rains lashed Sri Lanka’s central and eastern regions Monday with the death toll from mudslides rising to 12 and 900,000 people driven out of their flooded homes, officials said.
http://www.sify.com/news/sri-lanka-floods-worsen-toll-hits-12-news-international-lbkskdggjba.html
And in a monthly update, CO2 Now has published the final CO2 reading from Mauna Loa – the year finished at an average of 389.78 ppm CO2 – 2.43 higher than 2009 and evidence of the continued acceleration in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.
All our talk about emissions reducing initiatives has so far gone for nought.!!
Toowoomba, Australia -
Heavy rain has lashed the region for the last 36 hours, with 16cm (6in) falling in just one hour. Most of the rainwater hit an already saturated catchment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12149921
Extreme flooding in Germany, Polen and Belgia from the very high January temperatures:
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/10/5804302-melting-snow-floods-german-rivers
Temperatures are now way above normal pretty much all over Europe, after the Arctic circulation patterns got back to a more normal mode as the Arctic sea ice finally froze back to more normal levels, after having being delayed for months, due to AGW induced Arctic warming.
Massively embarrassing failure for the global cooling alarmists like Bastardi and Corbyn. Note that Bastardi wised up and recently changed his forecast of an extremely cold January, while Corbyn is sticking to his story of a record cold January despite very high temperatures across Europe. Talk about being in denial. This is what he stated even after the mild weather arrived:
“Apart from certain charlatans who copy-cat our long range forecasts most standard meteorology holds, as always, that the weather should get back to ‘normal’ very soon and the warmist idealogues declare that cold means warm. In the face of this I say:
1.Our forecast for an exceptionally cold and also snowy January in Britain & West Europe stands”
Words like “Epic fail” comes to mind. He seems hellbent on discrediting himself completely, once and for all.
Yes, the weather did get back to “normal”, just what the “warmists” said. Talk about digging your own grave.
The failure to forecast the very warm warm January temps is just another reminder for everyone to ignore their unscientific forecasts of long term global cooling.
In response to the “climate change through year 3000″ study, I think some deniers are likely to say “we’re screwed no matter what we do”. It’s important to keep in mind, for those conversations, that things get much, much worse if we don’t do anything, and they get worse faster.
Self preservation is still a legitimate motivation here, and the long-term goal of species preservation (ours) is also still important.
Esop (4) -
after the Arctic circulation patterns got back to a more normal mode as the Arctic sea ice finally froze back to more normal levels
If you look at IJIS, they show that Arctic sea ice is still at record lows (2006 has the monthly record for January). Also, the Arctic Oscillation is still out of whack, although is forecast to return to normal:
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao.shtml
# Alteredstory,
The research also fails to indicate that there is a high probability that we might get sudden multi-cm jumps in the SL over shorter periods of 10yrs.
It has happen numerous times before under less forcing.
Joe, you’ve got BP ads showing up on your site…
[JR: On it.]
I see TVMOB is at it again, just picked up on this in an Andrew Bolt thread at Deltoid. I do apologise for linking to WeUseWishfulThinking:
Monckton skewers Steketee
What 300 mm looks once it gets to the ground -
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/environment/weather/flood-disaster-surges-on/20110101-19cgs.html?selectedImage=0
Here is a funny cartoon:
This Just In. Snow in Winter.
http://climatecrocks.com/2011/01/10/this-just-in-snow-in-winter/
In response to the “climate change through year 3000″ study, ……
One item in that study I found interesting , the wind speeds in the Southern Hemisphere will be increasing. One wonders about what the “Roaring Forties” will be like.
WASHINGTON — Last summer, as torrential rains flooded Pakistan, a veteran intelligence analyst watched closely from his desk at CIA headquarters just outside the capital.
For the analyst, who heads the CIA’s year-old Center on Climate Change and National Security, the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history was a warning.
“It has the exact same symptoms you would see for future climate change events, and we’re expecting to see more of them,” he said later, agreeing to talk only if his name were not revealed, for security reasons.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/10/106406/why-the-cia-is-spying-on-a-changing.html#ixzz1AfUlU5PO
OT, but important news flash:
After much DeLay, the Judge gave the Hammer three years in the slammer.
John McCormick
#6 Michael: AO still negative, but it seems that the NAO is the more influental of the two this year, especially for the European weather:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao.shtml
Temperatures almost back to normal in Greenland and the Barents sea at the moment (still warmer than normal, but much colder than the completely wacky temperatures that we saw there until recently). I think ice coverage in certain areas is the key, more so than overall ice extent (or the lack thereof).
Nevertheless: the freeze has been replaced by very warm weather, and the deniers who were dancing in the streets just over a week ago have gone rather quiet, at least compared to their december frenzy, poor sods.
I suspect the currently cold areas of the US will warm up pretty soon. There was a delay from the onset of the European cold snap, so the warming in the US will probably be somewhat delayed too.
The extreme floods in Australia have caused an interesting dilemma for the deniers. In their desperate quest to find a purely natural cause of the floods, they have admitted that the current La Nina is extremely strong.
That begs the question: 2010 warmest year on record in a year dominated by an extremely strong La Nina? How could that be?
Alteredstory @5 — Of course what is needed is to remove most of the 500 billion tons of fossil carbon contamination (so far). This is possible, just possibly expen$ive. (See the thread on wedges, next up.)
Thanks, Sean. It looks like the deniers not only can’t read thermometers, they can’t read legal statutes either.
The Great Decline is starting!
Recent floods and now the realization….time to sell up if you want to stay ahead.
This has come even sooner than I thought….
Rise in flood risk could make one million homes uninsurable – The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/rise-in-flood-risk-could-make-one-million-homes-uninsurable-2179746.html
Homeowners living near rivers and the coast face losing up to 40 per cent of the value of their homes as flood risk makes them uninsurable.
More than a million homes and 300,000 businesses are at risk, including those in parts of London, Southend, Brighton, Reading, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Environment Agency says.
…
‘It’ll be harder to sell now’
Wot Blowers, 62, a self-employed gardener from Cockermouth, Cumbria, was rehoused through her insurance company following floods in the county in 2009
“It was awful. I was out of my home for nearly a year. I am back now, but it has taken the best part of a year to get the house fixed. The whole of the ground floor was flooded halfway to the ceiling.
“I probably have lost value on my house. I’ve been wanting to sell it for years, but it’s going to be a lot harder now. My premium was £150 originally, but when I got my insurance renewal it was £2,111. I spoke to Trading Standards, but it’s still higher than it was.”
@ paulm #19 – Here in Australia it ranges from difficult to impossible (mostly the latter) to get flood insurance, not that it’s too expensive, it’s that it’s not available. Most house insurance covers storm damage but not flood damage. I doubt that many of those who’ve lost their homes or had flood damaged homes in Queensland will be covered by insurance. People affected by the flash floods (eg Townsville and Grantham etc) may be able to claim storm damage.
Floods hitting Brisbane now – some fear it could get as bad as 1974 despite Wivenhoe Dam:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/brisbane-flood-alert-as-wivenhoe-threatens-to-spill-over/story-e6freon6-1225985251560
re: Congressional Review Act might not be an option to fight EPA regs (subs. req’d)
Maybe Fred Upton should seek Sarah Palin’s advice, go out and shoot a caribou or something to unwind.
Ontario is currently building enough wind turbines to provide 7% of total supply so that we can shut our coal plants as planned in 2014. About 2/3rds of Ontario’s power is currently clean as it comes from nuclear and hydro.
Does anyone have information about a group called “Industrial Wind Action Group” ? I won’t link to them here but if you google the name they are at the top of the search results page.
I’m convinced “Industrial Wind Action Group” is an astroturf outfit. Koch Bros?
They show up in communities where turbines are either being constructed or are planned and then start spreading myths and lies about wind power. There seems to be some local organization to these groups with local persons on the ground as talking heads. It would be interesting to know if these “concerned” citizens are paid (not that they would tell). I also suspect they are linking up with the political opposition here.
On the other side of the divide there is a group here in Ontario called CAIRE. They have an excellent website which is a great resource if anyone needs talking points and sound science to counter the lies and myths spread by these cretins about wind. Their web-site is at http://www.whywind.org
Atmospheric CO2 averaged 389 ppm in December 2010:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/mlo.html
20 sou, mmm auz is special. They have always had wild weath. Now it’s getting worse.
In areas with established property prices where the value previously was not affected by flooding will now see a collapse.
This will actually devastate communities, as clearly shown by small islands, but also places like Miami will be a ghetto peninsula.
She also speaks for the world…..
Gillard warns dark days lie ahead
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/11/3110558.htm?section=justin
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned Queenslanders there are more dark days ahead as they try to deal with massive flash flooding across the south of the state.
Must see series. The guy nails it….UBC Prof. Bill Rees who invented the term ecological footprint.
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=183947681634598&id=139434822741700
UBC Ecologist Bill Rees Part 1 of 8
http://www.youtube.com
Dr. William Rees of UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning stated that humanity’s survival depends on an 80% reduction in energy use.
Esop #16, the efforts being made by Government meteorological officials not to mention climate change or atmospheric water vapour when attempting to explain the unbelievable deluges and flash floods of the last few days (and months before that) are quite comical. Of course La Nina is behind it all, there’s nothing unusual, its flooded like this before (well nobody is buying that much any more, but the Dunning-Kruger rabble)it’s all down to ‘local’ effects (I heard one boffin attempting to explain why there was no warning whatsoever of yesterday’s disaster in Toowoomba, using the word ‘local’ over and over, like a mantra, and like someone who had been programmed to speak mambo-jambo). Meanwhile the denialists, as predicted, are turning nasty as their ignorant obscurantism becomes more laughable, disreputable and frantic. They are resorting to their old trick of diversion by scapegoating, blaming the evil ‘greenies’ for the floods, because they stopped us building dams. That every dam is overflowing is, of course, irrelevant. It’s just like the denialists’ response to the Victoria mega-fire disaster of February 2009, where they denied that the record weather conditions of unprecedented heat, dryness of soil and vegetation after years of drought, low humidity, fierce winds and the highest ever temperature in the region, had anything to do with the disaster, or climate change. Instead they soon descended to a fury of hate aimed at, you guessed it, ‘greenies’ for stopping ‘hazard reduction’ clearing of vegetation. This itself was untrue, record amounts having been burned off in recent years,but it gave them an excuse to indulge their infinite capacity for hatred, to the extent that one denialist columnist wrote that greenies should be lynched and hanged from telephone poles. This was, unbelievably, not spiked and a psychologist called for, but published in what passes these days for our ‘quality press’.
Climate Models, Climate Forcing and Climate Change: Dr. Gavin Schmidt
Speaker: Dr. Gavin Schmidt
Feb 8, 2010 – Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center – Society of American Foresters Meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPavvQme60s
Weeks of Rain Inundate Queensland
With the city of Rockhampton cut off by flood waters, coal mines debilitated by water and washed out tracks and crops ruined by the worst flooding in a century, Queensland state in northeastern Australia finds its resolve being tested. This movie shows infrared imagery taken from the Japanese Meteorological Agency’s MTSAT satellites from December 6, 2010 through January 3, 2011. A color enhancement is used on this infrared data to show areas of storm intensity. Yellow and red colors indicate the most intense storms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE6WUc5cKCo
The worst is about to happen in Queensland. The predictions combining rainfall and high tides now mean that Brisbane’s high water will be higher than the 1974 flood. The showgrounds are being used as an evacuation centre for people from lower-lying areas. (Not everyone will go there because animals are not allowed. People with pets will have to find friends and relatives with homes on higher ground to house their pets.)
And for those into records – despite the fact that in some places the flood waters have not exceeded previous levels – it has *never* happened before that 3 major river basins in SE queensland have flooded at the same time.
Dramatic pictures of Queensland flooding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-BEMTwh4hI&feature=player_embedded#!
Australian floods: Brisbane homes evacuated as crisis escalates
The devastating Queensland floods that have claimed at least nine lives in the past 24 hours and left 59 missing have hit the state’s capital Brisbane, where thousands of residents have been warned to evacuate their homes.
There were fears that the extent of the flooding could exceed the levels of the 1974 flood, which killed 14 people and inundated more than 6,700 homes.
The emergency escalated quickly during the day, with more than 30 low-lying suburbs on high alert and inner-city suburbs including West End and Fortitude Valley being evacuated.
As the Brisbane River breached its banks in several place to engulf parks and footbridges and heavy rain continued to fall on the metropolitan area, the city’s main roads and public transport system quickly became clogged as hundreds of people rushed to get to higher ground. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8251726/Australian-floods-Brisbane-homes-evacuated-as-crisis-escalates.html
Besides Brisbane has a dam now and people a week ago called it worse then 1974 … in the meantime the MSM blames it on La Nina without mentioning climate change.
“Early estimates suggested that more than 9,000 homes could be inundated when the Brisbane River peaks at 12ft over the next two days. Campbell Newman, the Brisbane mayor, said 6,500 homes and businesses could experience seriously flooding.
Brisbane, which is Australia’s third largest city and is home to two million people, was under siege on four fronts, with runoff from the flash flooding in the Lockyer Valley, large volumes of water running down the Brisbane River, a king tide and heavy rain combining to create what Julia Gillard, the prime minister, called “a very dire situation”.
The threat to Brisbane comes after an inland tsunami swept through Toowoomba, 77 miles to the west of the Queensland capital, on Monday.
Outside Brisbane, towns to the west and north were isolated by the floodwaters and rescue efforts were being hampered by continuing bad weather. About 300 people were being airlifted from the Lockyer Valley town of Forest Hill and the outlook was poor for the town of Ipswich, where water was rising, affecting 400 streets.
Ms Gillard has said the events unfolding in Queensland were shocking and warned the nation to brace for the death toll to rise.
She fielded questions about whether the region had been properly prepared for the deluge. But government meteorologists have said that the flash flooding was almost impossible to predict.
Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland, fought back tears as she described the events as “our darkest hour”.
“The flood crisis has deepened seriously over the past several hours,” she said.
“This weather may be breaking our hearts but it will not break our will.”
Ms Bligh warned that the entire city of Brisbane would be affected with workplaces and shopping centres closed. She urged residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary and warned that the death toll could double.
“We are facing one of our toughest ever tests… now is not a time to panic, it is a time to stick together,” she said.
As the flooding sweeps across southeast Queensland, bushfires are raging in Western Australia, threatening scores of properties.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8251726/Australian-floods-Brisbane-homes-evacuated-as-crisis-escalates.html
But even though Australia faces biblical, unprecedented climate phenomenon, do not mention climate change …
The MSM fails big time! There are a lot of articles who claim this is all very normal …
Australia’s Third-Largest City at Risk From Floods
SYDNEY, Australia — Australian officials urged thousands of people to flee to higher ground on Tuesday in Australia’s third-largest city, Brisbane, as floodwaters that killed at least nine people rushed toward the coastal capital of 2 million people.
Cars jammed the streets in Brisbane’s low-lying central business district, with residents scrambling to secure their possessions and move to safe areas as the swollen Brisbane River began bursting its banks.
The city’s mayor, Campbell Newman, warned that at least 6,500 homes could be flooded by Thursday, when the river is expected to peak at about 20 feet above its usual level, the biggest flood in a century.
The overall death toll from two weeks of flooding in Queensland is at least 19.
Emergency crews worked frantically to rescue hundreds of people left stranded by the raging floodwaters — described by some locals as an “inland tsunami” — that Toowoomba and several smaller towns.
Around 300 people were plucked from the disaster zone by helicopter on Tuesday after the tiny hamlet of Forest Hill was cut off by the torrent, Ms. Bligh said. Some 66 people were still missing late Tuesday, and Queensland police warned that the death toll was likely to rise as emergency crews continued to sift through the wreckage.
Brisbane’s main reservoir, which was created to protect the city from flooding after the last devastating flood in 1974, was overflowing, adding thousands of gallons to the region’s swollen river systems, according to Mr. Newman.
“The situation has obviously demonstrably deteriorated,” Mr. Newman told a meeting of disaster management officials in Brisbane, according to local news reports. “Today is very significant, tomorrow is bad, and Thursday is going to be devastating for the residents and businesses affected.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/world/asia/12australia.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
This is a real Paradox here, even though the people face unprecedented climate phenomenon, they refuse to talk about it.
Re Michael T, incredible footage of the climate phenomenon, responsible for the deluge!
VIDEO
“Australia’s geographic position between the 10 and 40 degrees south latitude places it in areas of divergent flow patterns. Between the Equator and 30 degrees south latitude, flow patterns are typically in a east to west direction; between 30 and 60 degrees south latitude, flow patterns move west to east. These divergent patterns at 0, 30, 60, and 90 degrees latitude in both hemispheres are setup by the Hadley, Ferrell and Polar cell circulations, which describes how air rises and falls in the atmosphere and is also affected by Coriolis. The combination of these global circulation forces affect the flow of most large-scale weather patterns on the planet. In the animation it is possible to see systems that cross the 30 degree boundary and get sheared in another direction.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE6WUc5cKCo
WHY for FFS is nobody talking about this in the MSM????????????
Brisbane faces now the worst floods in memory, worse than the 1974 floods
Residents flee as water rises http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvF5kUAXtBs&feature=channel
9000 homes face now flooding, which according to the video was not thought of could happen, yesterday. I wrote last week about the Brisbane threat and that last week residents reported the floods were similar to 1974.
Apparently the authorities seem overwhelmed by the magnitude of the climate weirding. This event will be the worst catastrophe in Australian history. Australia’s 3rd largest city with 2 million residents, with this situation and no warnings in the days before … there are so many fails about this story.
The authorities face now a logistic nightmare with already stretched resources …
Authorities should have looked closer to the cause, to predict the development better! The wether/climate situation, see Michael T’s video post #27 about this phenomenon “systems that cross the 30 degree boundary and get sheared in another direction.”.
So far most prediction outcomes were about wishcasting “we hope it doesn’t rain much”and total lack of professional approach. Except for the major of Rockhampton, who mentioned climate change and tied it to the deluge.
Grantham residents are in shock after a torrent of water ripped through the town yesterday. The 7.30 Report’s Paul Lockyer reports from the town of Grantham in Queensland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pab1mvns0kg&feature=channel
“Houses exploded …”
Panicked residents strip shelves bare
Authorities are urging people to remain calm amid panicked scenes of shoppers stripping the shelves of Brisbane supermarkets as they face record flood levels.
Large parts of Brisbane and Ipswich are to be inundated, with flood peaks expected to surpass the 1974 floods.
There have been reports of panic buying at grocery stores across south-east Queensland, and some retail outlets are running low on essential items such as bread and milk. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/11/3110810.htm
Who would have thought this could happen …
100,000 to lose power, supermarkets bare as flooding crisis continues http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/100000-to-lose-power-supermarkets-bare-as-flooding-crisis-continues-20110110-19l56.html
More severe weather for Brisbane
Meanwhile, a severe weather warning has been issued for much of south-east Queensland, including Brisbane and the south-east coast, Darling Downs and the Granite Belt south-east of Dalby to Goondiwindi.
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning of heavy rainfall causing localised flash flooding and worsening the existing river flood situation.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/100000-to-lose-power-supermarkets-bare-as-flooding-crisis-continues-20110110-19l56.html
From above article, comments:
“The BBC website is still down, When you call the call centre they tell you if your call isn’t urget call back later. How are you supposed to get information. Not good enough.
fedupmum | brisbane – January 11, 2011, 8:40AM
Agreed, fedupmum, we are nearing the apocalypse and we can’t get any useful information from the GOVERNMENT, cmon council pull up your socks, do your job and GOVERN us. We are your plebs so we at least deserve some sort of idea what’s going on.
Don’t let this end up like Katrina over in the states.
I’d be getting the armed forces ready for a mass evac and stocking up on food and medicines for displaced people, as well as enough transport for all of us.
Nathan | Graceville! – January 11, 2011, 9:42AM”
Houses have been ripped from their foundations and carried away by raging floodwaters in the southern Queensland town of Grantham. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0SjPV_aRkw&feature=channel
Arson blamed for WA bushfire
Police are searching for arsonists who deliberately lit a bushfire which tore through at least four homes in Lake Clifton south of Perth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qgXMag904c&feature=channel
Towns flooded twice in 24 hours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBfeiNpBhA&feature=channel
Residents reeling from Toowoomba ‘inland tsunami’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgMjSvXYvBU&feature=channel
Residents of Warwick in Queensland’s south-east are evacuating their homes for the second time in three weeks as water from the Condamine River floods the town. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV2CB-M5Orw&feature=channel
What Caused The Floods? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ_XpBbDzJ0&feature=channel
Australian MSM investigates and says La Nina is to blame … not mentioning that La Nina is a climate phenomenon. It strikes me that the MSM avoids the term climate!
Michael T. -
It’s really boiling isn’t it ?
Brisbane -
Deadly wave heads for Brisbane
THE nation confronts its worst flood disaster in living memory, with 30 people believed dead and 78 missing in southeast Queensland.
The wall of water bearing down on Brisbane threatens to engulf thousands of homes and put more people at risk.
The official death toll from the flash flooding that ripped through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley yesterday stands at 10, with half the victims children, but Julia Gillard warned that this was bound to increase.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/flood-death-toll-rises-as-brisbane-river-breaks-its-banks/story-fn7iwx3v-1225985777625
Torrential rain in Sri Lanka, 16 dead and 832 thousand displaced
Damage to agriculture is particularly serious. According to the latest data from the Center for Natural Disaster Management, this wave of exceptionally bad weather, has destroyed 25 thousand hectares of crops and 200 water tanks.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Torrential-rain-in-Sri-Lanka,-16-dead-and-832-thousand-displaced-20464.html
The Sri Lanka floods -
Torrential rains continued to lash Batticaloa District for the last few days with the area receiving 85.6 mm of rain during the 24 hours ending 8.30 am yesterday.
The previous day, there was 317 mm of rain which was the highest rainfall recorded for a day for the last 100 years, said a spokesman for the Batticaloa District Meteorological Department Office.
———————–
This is 15.8 inches of rain.
Queensland Flood Disaster – Tuesday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTpvnQx_UTg&feature=channel
“It’s actually looking pretty scary here … “
South-western Holland and most parts of Belgium have been the worst hit by the torrential rain and floods, combined with melting water coming down from higher areas. After around 10cm of rain fell over the weekend (some areas recorded almost 15cm ( 5.9 inches) of rain in 12 hours), cities like Bouillon flood.
http://www.demotix.com/news/553883/lower-lands-flood-bouillon-belgium
Brisbane Floods 2011.01.11 1pm-3pm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si6m9Sghy0M
My copy of The Warming Papers arrived yesterday and what a welcome addition to my literature it is. Don’t expect WUWTers to read it though nor Fox pundits.
2011 continues where 2010 left off, with catastrophic, AGW related events all over the globe: Extreme flooding, deadly cold spells (due to Arctic warming causing Arctic outbursts), and now extreme European floods, due to very high temperatures rapidly melting snow and ice.
AGW caused climate chaos is here, and it’s only gonna get worse. Much worse.
Australia’s ‘nightmare floods’ reach Brisbane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfwKEJ3aLw&feature=player_embedded
13 dead after heavy rains in Brazil
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110111/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_floods
In the meantime the weather weirding continues
South still iced over as Northeast braces for snow
TLANTA — Much of the Southeast remains immobilized for a second day by remnants of the winter storm that slammed the region Sunday and Monday and travel conditions might not improve significantly until Friday.
Over the next few days, temperatures in many parts of the region are expected to barely rise above freezing during the day then dip into the teens at night. That means that whatever snow and ice melts during the day will re-freeze at overnight, creating hazardous morning rush hour driving conditions for the next several days.
Meanwhile, New York City was about to confront its third snowstorm in less than three weeks, a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration admitted a series of mistakes in its handling of a Christmas weekend blizzard and promised immediate changes.
The storm shut down most cities and towns, closed many businesses, and canceled most flights at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest. At least nine people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents across the South.
Elsewhere around the Carolinas, thousands were without power.
Gov. Mark Sanford declared a state of emergency in all 46 counties on Monday, allowing him to put National Guard soldiers on active dute, he said.
The ice sheets covering roads are too thick to plow, said Mike Murphy, public works director for the city of Greenville.
Roads that were hard-packed with snow on Monday are now also topped with ice.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2011-01-11-south-northeast-winter-storm_N.htm?csp=34news
The ice sheets covering roads are too thick to plow