Hurricane Matthew continued up the coast in slightly diminutive form, a last minute wobble and some mild weakening spared Florida the worst, but it wrecked homes and flooded business the whole way and it’s not over yet. Locals are just now assessing the damage and starting to think about cleaning up, but it’s already clear the damage is in the billions and could end up surpassing other hurricanes in total dollars simply because of Matthew’s path.
Climate change is surely a factor, as climate scientist Michael Mann explained this week in an interview posted at Democracy Now:
[W]here that rapid intensification occurred was in the region of the Caribbean that has the greatest heat content, not just that the ocean surface temperatures are warm, but there’s a very deep layer of warm water. And that’s important, because that helps sustain these storms as they churn up the ocean. The churning doesn’t bring cold water to the surface to weaken the storm, if there’s a deep layer of warmth. And that all has a climate change signature with it, not just the fact that the ocean surface temperatures in the Caribbean are at near-record levels, but the—just the sheer depth of that warm water is unprecedented.
Looking at that sinister track makes you wonder about lots of things that might happen. Given enough time and enough cyclones, sooner or later they’ll do truly bizarre, ultra low probably things. Like gang up by the dozen and hit the same place in a single month, or perfectly buzz up and down any given length of coastline while staying just out to sea enough to remain a cyclone, or get caught in a loop circling back and back and back again.
- Tree frogs are beautiful examples of evolution and diversity, and this week, that diversity grew a little less rich as one species appears to have gone extinct right under our noses:
It has been a sad week for the workers at the Atlanta Botanical Garden as the last known living member of a rare tree frog species in captivity died despite their best efforts to save the endangered species. The frog, which they named "Toughie," is a Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog.
- Several of us rabid science writers have tried to make the point that there is really is no “best” energy source. Case in point, clean hydro-electric power might actually generate greenhouse gases:
However, damming rivers also creates the perfect conditions for microorganisms to generate greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. These gases bubble up to the surface of the reservoir and enter the atmosphere.
They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added. The development of computing demonstrates how the miniaturisation of technology can lead to a revolution. The 2016 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have miniaturised machines and taken chemistry to a new dimension.
- How about a shout out to those daring men and women in their flying machines who routinely fly into the heart of these raging monsters solely for our benefit?