Climate Denial Crock of the Week

This video proves we’re living in a disaster movie

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Massive Flooding Shuts Down Entire Region of Northern Colorado Read more: PHOTOS: Massive Flooding Shuts Down Entire Region of Northern Colorado

The Northern Colorado Front Range is experiencing an unprecedented flood that has stranded and displaced thousands of residents and shut down well over a dozen towns.

Every river and stream in an 80 mile swath from west of Denver to Ft Collins has overflowed its banks, taking out major highways to towns in the mountains, and flooding entire communities downstream. While flooding has been a concern for years and flood controls have been built up, the sheer scale and volume of the rains have ground Colorado to a halt while altering the landscape to an unrecognizable state and prompting a state of emergency throughout the region. From my vantage on a mountain 10 miles west of Fort Collins, the sound of water cascading through the vast valley below fills the air, and all roads further west are closed.

The true scope of the damage will not be known for some time. The record-breaking forest fires in Larimer County and Colorado Springs last year have hampered the ability of the landscape to absorb the water, which has only aggravated the damage. The large rain totals (which have been gauged up to 11 inches in Boulder and 15 inches higher up) are a result of monsoonal moisture traveling north from the Gulf of Mexico. That moisture combined with a low pressure system to the west has created an upslope weather phenomena in which the Rocky Mountains literally squeeze the rain out of the clouds.

While the rains are finally subsiding, the volume of water in the mountains streams is actually picking up, closing virtually every bridge in Larimer and Boulder counties. Many roads near valley streams are destroyed along with homes and businesses. Some towns are completely isolated,including Lyons, and Estes Park (at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park) is only accessible by Trail Ridge Road – the highest paved road in the US. Many homes through the mountains are also cut off due to the roads being made impassable, if not outright destroyed.

In the larger cities at the base of the Front Range, most major bridges have closed, including I25, and neighborhoods scattered from Fort Collins to Denver have been evacuated as the waters find their way down from the mountains. Some of the flooding concerns come from failed dams like the one at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which prompted thousands of homes to be evacuated in Commerce City, just north of Denver. Many low-laying areas near rivers all along the Front Range have also been evacuated. Others residents have been asked to shelter in place as the scale of the flooding makes many roads impassable. More rain forecasted for this weekend will keep the state on high alert. More

 

Heat Wave In China

For the entire month of July and the first half of August, eastern China baked in a record-breaking heat wave. Nineteen provinces endured above-normal temperatures.

Shanghai broke its all-time record high three times in as many weeks. The current record—40.8 degrees Celsius (105.4°F)—was set on August 7, 2013. At least 40 people have died during the heat wave, including ten in Shanghai, according to the Xinhua news service.

During a heat wave, ground temperatures soar, particularly in urban areas where there are fewer plants to cool the ground with shade and evapotranspiration. Paved or metallic surfaces can become warm enough to cook food. These images show land surface temperatures as measured by two different satellites.

The image above shows temperature anomalies across China between August 5 and August 12, 2013, as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Red areas are warmer than the long-term average for the week, while cooler-than-average temperatures are blue. While much of China was warm during this period, the worst of the heat wave was concentrated near the coast and in Tibet. This weather pattern is tied to a subtropical high-pressure system parked over southern China, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

Though miserable everywhere, the heat wave was likely worst in China’s cities, where manmade surfaces absorb heat during the day and cool slowly at night. As a result, cities are warmer during the day and slower to cool at night, making an extended heat wave more uncomfortable, and more deadly, in a city. The image below shows this “urban heat island” effect in Shanghai.

The image was made with measurements taken on August 13, 2013 by the Thermal Infrared Sensor on the Landsat 8 satellite. The warmest surfaces are yellow, while cooler surfaces are pink. The image shows pockets of very warm areas, particularly downtown, surrounded by cooler suburban areas. The dark purple dots are cold clouds.

Chinese officials have declared a weather emergency, warning residents to limit time outdoors. It is the first time the country has issued a weather warning for heat. China’s National Meteorological Center expected the heat to break sometime after August 15.

 

Rescue operations in Western Japan prefectures underway after torrential rain

Western Japan is now the target of full-scale search and rescue operations that started Monday morning, as the region was hit with a record amount of rain on Sunday.

There are a lot of people, estimated to be in the hundreds, in Yamaguchi and Shimane Prefectures stranded by the flooding due to the tremendous amount of rain. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned the region specifically that it will experience “unprecedentedly heavy rains”, and residents were advised to be vigilant regarding incoming floods and mudslides.

In Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 79-year-old Yoshino Tashima was found under a collapsed house and was confirmed dead. At least 10 people in the area were injured in one way or another. The downpour also caused locations to be isolated due to mudslides, and around 480 people were being rescued by helicopter from different areas in the prefecture. Some 200 primary school students who were attending a summer camp in the prefecture were trapped due at a prefectural youth nature center near Tokusagamine mountain. Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force members rescued them by helicopter early Monday.

In Tsuwano, Shimane Prefecture, around 200 residents from three districts were still stranded as of noon, according to reports from the area. Some residents in the town’s Nayoshi district were also transported by helicopter because of the flooding. The record-breaking rains also affected the train region’s train service. JR Yamaguchi Line was rendered partially out of service as a bridge and other facilities had been affected by floodwaters. A farmer in the Nayoshi district of Tsuwano said, “The river swelled immediately, and an asphalt surface of a prefectural road collapsed.”

The torrential rains have brought one month’s worth of rain to these areas in just one day, according to reports. The Japan Meteorological Agency has urged the public to remain vigilant, because even if the rain has stopped for now, heavy rain is again expected in the area on Monday night due to a weather system brought by westerly winds. The Japanese central government is already assessing the damage in the area. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference Monday that an investigation team headed by Yasutoshi Nishimura, senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office, would be sent to Yamaguchi and Shimane prefectures to assess the rain damage. More

 

Alberta flood: 'I watched a refrigerator go by. It's insane'

Torrential rains and widespread flooding in southern Alberta have left people throughout the province in awe at the power and scope of the devastation.

More floods for Alberta

The floodwaters have washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away. Several communities are under states of emergency, and as many as 100,000 people could be forced from their homes in Calgary alone.

'I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane.' —Canmore resident Wade Graham

There were flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies, to Calgary and beyond in the north and south to Lethbridge.

John E. Marriott, a photographer who lives along Cougar Creek in the mountain town of Canmore, about 100 km west of Calgary, said on Thursday that the raging torrent had moved within metres of his house.

The creek rose from centimetres deep and about three metres wide to being 150 metres wide and about five metres deep, he said.

Canmore resident Wade Graham said he woke up at about 3 a.m. Thursday to a rumbling sound "and it was the creek."

"At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider.

"All you can hear is like boulders and trees. I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane."

He told CBC News he was looking directly at Grotto Mountain, "which has no waterfalls on it ever. From my bedroom window I can count ... seven major waterfalls from here."

Mike Crawford, who lives on Bow Crescent in Calgary, said he had to leave his home just after noon Thursday.

"Early this morning the river was going over the bike trails, but it wasn't looking to be a concern," he told CBC's Ian Hanomansing.

"Noon it was higher, but still not a concern, and within hours it had risen several feet and water started seeping up onto the streets and running through the neighbour's yard into my yard."

He said he decided to leave while it was still safe, saying water was starting to cover the streets. Crawford's home was built over the last year, and he moved in only three weeks ago. "I'm not really sure what I'm going to be walking into tomorrow or the next day," he said.

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River (Cougar Creek is a tributary) aren't expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.

Evacuees in Calgary were being asked to stay with friends or relatives, though recreation centres were being set up to accommodate those who had no place to go. More

 

Could big bills from extreme weather drive climate action?

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Could the growing costs of damage from extreme weather – in rich countries as well as poor – be the push that finally drives action on climate change?

House inundated by the Elbe river

Worst-in-a-decade flooding that swept through Germany as U.N. climate talks took place there this month will cost Germany’s government and its insurance companies up to $8 billion, experts estimate. In the United States, the bill for recovery from Hurricane Sandy is estimated at more than $50 billion, with agricultural losses from that country’s widespread drought last year even more costly.

“When you add up what all the extreme weather events cost last year (in the United States), it’s in excess of $250 billion,” said Rachel Kyte, vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank. “You’re talking about economic devastation that at some point is going to start hitting.”

So far, such heavy losses have not led to widespread political support for action on climate change in the United States, or other hard-hit countries. But a new report from the World Bank on the expected impacts of climate shifts suggests that so-called “loss and damage” from extreme weather is just starting, and the costs – in lives, economic damage and even potentially political stability – could rise dramatically around the world.

In South Asia, the once-regular Asian monsoon is growing less predictable, leading to deepening concerns that shifts could affect the food security and lives of 1.6 billion people. This year, the monsoon arrived almost a month early, causing severe flooding in some parts of India. At other times it has come late, leading to widespread power blackouts as desperate farmers switch on irrigation pumps, said Erick Fernandes, an adviser on climate change and natural resources for the World Bank.

Worsening drought in the Amazon threatens rainfall in food-producing areas of South America as far south as Argentina, he said, during a seminar on the World Bank report at the offices of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London.

Brazil’s crops – which are widely exported to other countries as well as feeding Brazilians – are 95 percent rainfed, Fernandes said, and the country relies heavily on hydropower for its energy.

Ocean acidification, as the world’s seas absorb excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, has risen by 30 percent from pre-industrial times, the seminar heard. Acidification could prevent many shellfish from growing shells while an expected global temperature rises of at least 4 degrees Celsius would kill most coral reefs around the world, threatening tourism income and leaving coasts now protected by reefs more vulnerable to storms.

The Caribbean alone earns $5 billion a year from its coral reefs, Fernandes said.

TWO DEGREES HOTTER

Much of southern and southwest Africa is expected to see worsening drought by 2030 that could make growing maize – the region’s staple – impossible in 40 percent of the area it is now cultivated, the report said. Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also likely to turn many of Africa’s grass savannahs to brushy woodlands, affecting pastoralists.

In Southeast Asia, where coastal cities are seeing a big population surge, particularly in informal settlements, rising temperatures are expected to make life extremely uncomfortable for those without access to air conditioning, and to drive a serious increase in the severity of storms that could flood homes and workplaces – as happened in Thailand in 2011, said Fernandes.

Such shifts, besides causing huge financial losses, are likely to force a complete revamp of existing development plans.

“The development paradigm we’ve been peddling for years, that it’s easier to deal with the poor in urban settings than rural, because they’re easier to find and reach with services” may now be wrong, Kyte said.

“This report says that perhaps the most dangerous place to be if you’re poor is in the slums of a southeast Asian city.”

Changes are coming faster than expected, Fernandes said, noting that there was now a chance that a 4 degree Celsius rise in temperatures could arrive by 2060, and that “we could experience a 2-degree (hotter) world in our lifetimes”.

The increasingly extreme weather of recent years is the result of a 0.8 degree Celsius rise in the world’s temperature since pre-industrial times, which suggests that “even 2 degrees is not going to be a picnic”, he said.

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, and a senior fellow at the IIED, said he saw the World Bank report as “all about loss and damage” – a relatively new term that describes the costs associated with failure to reduce or adapt to climate change.

Who might pay those costs remains a huge political question. Rich countries at the U.N. climate talks have so far refused to accept any liability for their higher carbon emissions, fearing it could lead to them having to pay billions in compensation, experts say.

That suggests many countries, companies and communities will be asked to shoulder the rising costs of extreme weather themselves – and those costs could lead to growing pressure for action, experts predicted. More

 

Race to save India Uttarakhand flood victims

A massive rescue operation is under way to reach survivors in the flood-hit Indian state of Uttarakhand, where nearly 150 people have died.

More than 62,000 pilgrims are stranded after the floods swept away buildings and triggered landslides.

A large number of them are reported to be trapped in the holy town of Kedarnath, located in a valley.

State Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has described the floods as a "Himalayan tsunami".

Flood-related deaths have also been reported in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states and neighbouring Nepal.

The monsoon season generally lasts from June to September, bringing rain which is critical to the farming output, but this year the rain in the north of India and parts of Nepal has been heavier than usual.

Media reports say military helicopters and the army are mainly targeting Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district, where portions of a famous Hindu temple have been washed away and the shrine is "submerged in mud and slush".

'Unprecedented'

State-run broadcaster Doordarshan reported that about 90 guest houses for pilgrims in Kedarnath and neighbouring areas had been swept away, raising fears of more deaths.

"I heard a loud explosion and a lake above Kedarnath town burst its banks. The floods arrived minutes later and everything was gone in 15 minutes," Dinesh Bagwari, a priest at the temple, told the BBC Hindi.

"We spent 36 hours without water or food. I saw several hundred people trapped in inhuman conditions. Five of my family members are missing and my 17-year-old son is stranded there."

More than 5,500 soldiers and hundreds of paramilitary and disaster management officials are working to rescue and provide emergency supplies to thousands of tourists and pilgrims stranded in towns and temples. Twenty helicopters have been deployed.

Uttarakhand police official RS Meena said that 15,000 people have been evacuated from the flood-hit areas by land and air so far.

Rescue operations were halted on Thursday morning due to rains and bad visibility, but resumed later in the day after the weather improved.

Senior Uttarakhand official Om Prakash said the death toll in the floods in the state had gone up to 150.

Mr Bahuguna said the death and destruction in the floods was "unprecedented", and that the toll would rise further.

The vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority told The Indian Express the rains in Uttarakhand had been the "heaviest in 60 years".

India's PM Manmohan Singh has described the situation there as "distressing" and announced a 10bn rupee ($170m; £127m) aid package for the state. More