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Implications of a Ten Day Refinery Outage

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Gail Tverberg - Sep. 13 (Opinion) - According to EIA data, gasoline inventories the week that Hurricane Gustav hit were the lowest that they had been since 2000, amounting to 187.9 million barrels, or about 21 days supply. Quite a bit of this inventory is needed just to keep the pipelines filled. EIA does not publish information as to how far inventories need to drop before we start seeing outages, but it is clear that we have now reached the point where shortages are developing.

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New Orleans dodges disaster

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Kathryn Jezer-Morton - Sep. 02 (Opinion) - In the post-Gustav news conferences, there will be handshakes and good cheer about a planning and evacuation job well done. Republican presidential candidate John McCain is no doubt relieved that he can now make a presidential-sounding statement of satisfaction about the proceedings, and maybe rub away some of the stink of the Bush administration's legacy of failure during Katrina.

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Gustav upsets the GOP Convention but may be good for the GOP

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By John Dickerson - Sep. 01 (Opinion) - For the moment, the disaster benefits McCain, because like all great political moments, it allows him to act authentically and yet benefit politically. One of the worst political clichÃ©s actually is true at this moment: Good policy is good politics. All McCain has to do is keep his aides off the phones talking about the politics of the storm, and he'll be in a position to benefit from it. (And so far, he looks like he's done that, too.)

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Global Warming Did It! Well, Maybe Not.

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:50:02 -0700

Washington Post - By Joel Achenbach - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - We're stuck on the notion that climate change is the culprit every time a natural disaster strikes. But that's just muddying the waters. We're heading into the heart of hurricane season, and any day now, a storm will barrel toward the United States, inspiring all the TV weather reporters to find a beach where they can lash themselves to a palm tree. We can be certain of two things: First, we'll be told that the wind is blowing very hard and the surf is up. Second, some expert will tell us that this storm might be a harbinger of global warming. Somewhere along the line, global warming became the explanation for everything. Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event -- a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck -- without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming. You are permitted to note, as a parenthetical, that no single weather calamity can be ascribed with absolute certainty (roll your eyes here to signal the exasperating fussiness of scientists) to what humans are doing to the atmosphere. But your tone will make it clear that this is just legalese, like the fine-print warnings on the flip side of a Lipitor ad.

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Janet Ritz: Permafrost Threatened by Rapid Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jul. 01 (Opinion) - A new study by the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research has warned that the integrity of carbon and methane sequestering permafrost is threatened by the rapid retreat of Arctic Sea Ice.

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Blow-by-Blow: Blogging Hurricane Felix

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:50:58 -0700

Pajamas Media - By Brendan Loy - Sep. 03 (Opinion) - with a Category 5 hurricane, flooding rains aren't the only problem; wind and storm surge are also a huge concern. If Felix makes landfall in Honduras, that country will bear the brunt of those impacts as well, but if it stays just offshore, then Belize could be in for a direct hit on Wednesday. The computer models are split on which scenario is more likely, with a slight trend toward a more southward track in recent model runs. The current NHC forecast track is on the "northern half of the guidance envelope," according to the discussion.

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Hurricane Dean's big winner: sugar?

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:37:09 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Blake Hounshell - Aug. 22 (Opinion) - The storm has wrecked sugar crops in places like Belize and Martinique, and may cause damage in Mexico. Still, there's reason to be skeptical of Smith's optimism. The economies of sugar-producing countries in the Caribbean depend heavily on sugar, but they're still only a small piece of the global trade.

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Blame it on the rain

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:43:14 -0700

Sepia Mutiny - Aug. 07 (Opinion) - Monsoon rains come every year, but the flooding caused by this year's downpour has been some of the worst in decades for India, Bangladesh and Nepal. 19 million people have been displaced by the deluge. That's roughly the entire population of New York State, the 3rd largest state in the union, or around the entire population of Sri Lanka.

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Climate change sceptics criticise polar bear science

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:31:51 -0700

New Scientist - Jul. 01 (Review) - Soon, who receives funding for this and other work from Exxon-Mobil, has been attacking climate change science for several years. Three of the six other authors also have links to the oil industry. A reply to Soon's paper accuses him of ignoring data that does not fit his argument and of misinterpreting the predictions made by climate models.

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