Obviously we have been riveted by the disaster that was Hurricane Harvey, but one phrase you rarely heard or saw in the coverage was climate change.....of course it didn't cause the storm, but it made it much more destructive.
Here are three articles that you might like to chew on while you think about where you are presently living....
1/. From Jeff Goodell in Rolling Stone....
People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 28th, 2017 in Houston, Texas
Let there be no doubt: the horrific damage wrought by Hurricane Harvey was an almost entirely man-made catastrophe, one fingerprinted by all-too-human neglect, corruption and denial. If we needed a reminder of the power of water to destroy an American city, Hurricane Harvey provided it. In Houston, a fast-growing metropolis of more than 2 million people, it wasn't the wind that was so damaging, or a storm surge pushing in – it was just water everywhere, falling for days in biblical torrents and transforming highways into rivers, flowing into homes, killing dozens, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing for higher ground. It was a terrifying and deadly display of what happens when nature collides with urban life on a planet radically altered by climate change.
2/. The second from the Guardian focuses on what these major storms will do the real estate markets....
If Florida gleaned anything from Hurricane Andrew, the intensely powerful storm that tore a deadly trail of destruction across Miami-Dade County almost exactly 25 years to the day that Hurricane Harvey barrelled into the Texas coastline, it was that living in areas exposed to the wrath of Mother Nature can come at a substantial cost.
At the time the most expensive natural disaster ever to hit the US, Andrew caused an estimated $15bn in insured losses in the state and changed the way insurance companies assessed their exposure to risk for weather-related events.
Many of the lessons that Florida has learned since 1992 have parallels in the unfolding disaster in Texas, experts say, and what was already a trend toward factoring in environmental threats and climate change to land and property values looks certain to become the standard nationwide as Houston begins to mop up from the misery of Harvey.
“The question is whether people are going to be basing their real estate decisions on climate change futures,” said Hugh Gladwin, professor of anthropology at Florida International University, who says his research suggests higher-standing areas of Miami are becoming increasingly gentrified as a result of sea level rise.
3/. The third is from David Wallace-Wells who wrote the incredible assessment of where the planet is going without drastic action to curb CO2 emissions that we featured as a special about a month ago....I have put it below if you would like to refresh your memory......it's so relevant to Harvey...
Was Hurricane Harvey the result of climate change? The answer is complicated because weather is complicated, and probably the best science can say, really, is “in part.” But in some very important ways the question is ultimately semantic. As journalist Robinson Meyer, at The Atlantic, and climate scientist Michael Mann, on Facebook, have explained very clearly and very helpfully, global warming has meant more moisture in the air, which intensifies rainfall and flooding, and significant sea-level rise, which leads to bigger and more invasive storm surges — these elements, along with lesser anthropogenic factors, account for as much as 30 percent of the deluge, according to one scientist Meyer spoke with. A storm a third weaker would still be devastating for the Texas Gulf, of course, considering Harvey’s likely rainfall is already over 40 inches in some spots, with another 15 to 25 to come. As of last week, the position of the city of Houston was that just 12 inches within 24 hours would be cause for total evacuation. But the more important matter is not how much blame for Harvey we should parcel out to climate change; it is how often, in this new age of epic weather, storms like this one will hit. There are complicated variables there, too, of course. But the big-picture answer is clear: much more often than we are prepared for — psychologically, socially, politically.
Climate change special article from six weeks go....worth rereading.....
4/. And if there was any doubt Texas is run by crazies [ideological and religious] this story will confirm it....
Texas’ secretary of state turned down
Quebec’s aid offer, asked for “prayers” instead
May God help Texas, because Canada sure won’t.
The Canadian province’s Minister of International Relations, Christine St-Pierre, offered to send equipment, power crews, sleeping materials and hygenic products to Texas. But Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos turned down her offer and simply asked for “prayers from the people of Quebec.”
Hurricane Harvey has also had the incidental effect of shedding light on the newly complicated and tense relationships that America has with the rest of the world under President Donald Trump.
5/. Trevor Noah from Tuesday defending Melania from the media attention to her wearing heels to Harvey....
On Tuesday night, Trevor Noah defended First Lady Melania Trumpafter she was slammed by critics for wearing stilettos when leaving for Houston, TX earlier that morning in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
The Daily Show host kicked off the show by highlighting North Korea’s latest missile launch that flew over Japan, but people “weren’t talking about it” because “Melania Trump apparently did something much worse…she went to Houston wearing high heels.”
“I don’t know why anyone should care what anyone wears when they’re on their way to help people,” Noah shamed her critics. “Like who cares?”
He then made the observation that no one criticizes what Pope Franciswears and he “looks like he’s going to a P Diddy party.”
“I know some people are like, ‘No Trevor, it’s not about that. It’s about sensitivity. You don’t wear things like that to a disaster zone,'” he continued. “I understand that, but in Melania’s defense, she lives in a permanent disaster zone and that’s what she always wears.”
6/. Tom Tomorrow.....
7/. Andrew Sullivan with his weekly column in New York Magazine.....excellent as always.....
Even a week later, the stench of it hangs in the air. The pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one of the more chilling authoritarian moves that Trump has made so far. I say this not simply because Arpaio treated prisoners in his charge in barbaric ways; not just because the president described this brutality as Arpaio simply “doing his job”; not even because Arpaio proudly and constantly engaged in racial profiling, making Latino citizens and noncitizens alike afraid to leave their own homes. I say it for a simpler reason: because it is Trump’s deepest indication yet that the rule of law means nothing to him.
8/. The President Show has Trump at a school for manners.....good luck with that.....an amusing five minutes.....
One has to wonder where the president learned his signature brand of manners, from his aggressive “your arm belongs to me now” handshake to his uncanny ability to make any conversation about himself.
On “The President Show” Thursday night, Anthony Atamanuik took his Donald Trump to a few experts on etiquette. They were not prepared.
9/. Good luck to the [smallish] percentage of Houston/Beaumont residents trying to make an insurance claim for Harvey damage.....Texas Republicans screwed them two weeks before the hurricane....
Something all too common has happened in the State of Texas.
The insurance lobby got their way this past legislative session–and then some. A new law, which goes into effect September 1, will make it harder for homeowners to file insurance claims while simultaneously lining insurance companies’ pockets.
And, of course, it comes just in time for the unchecked devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
That law, House Bill 1774, contains a variety of handouts to the insurance industry.
One of the more glaring components of the bill is a provision which reduces the penalties insurance companies are forced to pay if they’re late in paying out weather-related claims.
10/. Like Blues? Like good geetar playin'? This is Gary Clark Jr. with "When My Train Pulls In".....
11/. Sometimes we get a story that is just beyond belief - a Salt Lake City cop harasses and arrests a nurse at a hospital for doing her job and following police policy about blood tests.....the video is about three minutes, and disturbing....
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12/. Good TV coming in September......
Todays awful puns
1.) I tried to catch some fog…..I mist.
2.) When chemists die….They barium.
3.) Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
4.) A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray…Is now a seasoned veteran
5.) I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid…He says he can stop anytime.
6.) How does Moses make his tea ?…..Hebrews it.
7.) I stayed up all night to see where the sun went….The it dawned on me.
8.) This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club..But I never met herbivore.
9.) I’m reading a book about inti-gravity…..I can’t put it down.
10.) I did a theatrical performance about puns…..It was a play on words.
11.) They told me I had type A blood…But it was a type O.
12.) A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
13.) PMS jokes aren’t funny….Period !
14.) Why were the Indians here first ?….They had reservations.
15.) Class trip to the Coca Cola factory…..I hope there’s no pop quiz.
16.) Energizer Bunny arrested……Charged with battery.
17.) I didn’t like my beard at first….Then it grew on me.
18.) How do you make Holy water ?….Boil the hell out of it.
19.) What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary ?…A thesaurus.
20.) When you get a bladder infection….urine trouble.
21.) What does a clock do when it is hungry ?..It goes back for seconds.
22.) I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger….And then it hit me.
23.) Broken pencils are pointless.
Todays golfer joke
When I came home from golfing today, the wife left a note on the fridge:
It's not working, gone to stay with my Mother.
I can't take it anymore.
I opened the fridge, the light came on, and the beer was cold.
What the hell is she talking about?
Todays oldie joke
Well, I'm in the emergency room. Today has not been a good day.
After breakfast, I thought id do something different so I
decided to go horseback riding with some friends. I knew I would have trouble getting on.
It turned out to be a big mistake.
I got on the horse and it started out fine, but then it went a little faster; before I knew it, we were going as fast as the horse could go.
I couldn't handle the pace and eventually, I fell off. My foot got caught in the stirrup and the horse dragged me. It wouldn't stop. I was afraid and frightened. I slammed my head, banged my elbow and tore my shoulder.
Thank goodness the kind manager at Toys-R-Us came out and unplugged the machine.
That man had the nerve to take my change. I couldn't go on the Elephant or Motorcycle ride either.... He friggin' banned me.
I was refused the merry go round, too.
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