Reading Around the Internet: December 8, 2014

by • Climate Change Politics, Reading Around the Internet, Typhoon

This week, between grading and some other writing (on deadline, of course), I also took some time to catch up a little on climate change politics. Here’s some of the reading I did:

Philippines Hit By Typhoon

A storm named Hagupit (“Whip”, but also known as Typhoon Ruby) has struck the Philippines. At least 900,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. You may remember that last year Typhoon Haiyan killed 6,300 people and caused $13 billion in damage.  This time, thanks to preparedness and evacuation strategies the nation was spared the extreme amount of devastation and high death toll of Haiyan. That said, Hagupit is responsible for the deaths of three people, has caused landslides and damage to homes and buildings across the country. One of the more detailed and interesting articles covering the storm is from The Irish Times.

Antartica’s Ice

You may have heard that the ice shelves in Antarctica have been melting, causing a lot of concern regarding global climate change. A recent article from Ars Technica  discusses some of the recent science investigating the causes of the melting ice. While you’re reading that, and bundling up to go outside, you might want to take a look at the possible effects of Arctic ice melting from another Ars Technica article (here).  While the relationship is correlative and not causal, it is noteworthy how strong the correlation is.

UN Climate Talks

The UN Climate Summit 2014 is well underway, where world leaders are meeting in an attempt to craft a global agreement that would curb global warming.  You can read statements from the Member States as well as watch videos at the website. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow discussion about the summit at #climate2014. For awhile, as the Wall Street Journal reported, it appeared that China and the US had jointly unveiled longterm plans to cut carbon-dioxide emissions.  However, it appears that the momentum for change that resulting from what some commentators saw as a historic U.S.-China pact has slowed as conflicts between rich and poor countries concerning the roles of various countries in these plans have increased.  In addition, China has been working to remove provisions in the draft agreements that would allow other countries as well as non-governmental agencies to submit questions concerning carbon-reduction plans. The idea behind the provisions is to shine light onto the individual country plans and provide for some accountability among the various signees of the agreement. The tensions have been rising, not unexpectedly, as some of the harder questions and more difficult issues become the focus. However, there are several more days to go before the talks end, and so China’s position may change.

Reading Around the Internet: December 1, 2014

by • Earthquakes, Ebola, Emergency Management, Reading Around the Internet, Science of Disasters, Volcanoes

With the turn of the calendar page to the first of December comes the joys of the end of the semester… For me, that means grading term papers, writing final exams, grading final exams, and preparing final grades — and deadlines. Lots of deadlines! Oh, and there’s the whole preparation for the holidays, which this year includes decorating my new living quarters for the first time. My Christmas tree goes up this week — I can hardly wait… And as I type on a balmy 60 degree Sunday evening, there’s a parade happening outside my apartment windows. It seems to me there’s an unusually high number of doggies with reindeer antlers on their heads out there giving their owners some pointedly pathetic looks… It’s nice to have front row seats to the parade!

Even with all that happening, I did find a couple of items in my on-line reading the last week that I thought some of my readers may also find interesting, especially should you want a break from your year-end deadlines or holiday festivities/preparations.

Predicting Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Imagine how much better prepared we could be if we could predict when and where a giant earthquake or tsunami will occur. Researchers have been working on doing just that for quite some time. In a paper published on November 17th in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, a research team led by University of South Florida professor Tim Dixon discusses “slow slip events”, a geological phenomenon that may allow researchers to identify the precursors to major earthquakes. My understanding from a summary of the paper here is that a slow slip event is a bit like an earthquake, only it releases its energy very slowly and over a longer period of time (weeks or months). It appears that slow slip events may be precursors to much bigger earthquakes. If so, they could provide us with valuable information that will help people living in earthquake and tsunami prone areas prepare for major events.

More About Earthquakes

A group of researchers from laboratories at Geosciences Rennes, Geosciences Montpellier and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, and a scientist in Taiwan have released findings supporting a theory that erosion may also trigger earthquakes. This has consequences for land use planning. If surface activities matter to subsurface movement of the earth, not only does deforestation and the subsequent erosion of land matter, but so would other natural hazards, such as flooding, which often increases the speed of erosion.

In Oklahoma, geologists and other scientists attended a meeting focused on the need for updating national earthquake maps with information concerning man-made hazards, i.e., earthquakes triggered by disposal wells and/or hydraulic fracturing. The three-day workshop was co-hosted by the US Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey. KOSU, which is where the link above goes, interviewed the attendees concerning the importance of including such information for planning and building purposes and summarized the discussions.

Volcanoes

Mount Aso in Japan erupted. According to Newsweek, the last time it blew was 22 years ago. It is one of the largest volcanoes in the world.

In the meantime, Iceland’s Bardarbunga (which, in Icelandic is spelled Bárðarbunga) continues its eruption, This is the longest, continual eruption that Iceland has experienced in centuries. You can see a video here and read about it at the Newsweek site.

Hawaii’s volcano is also still active and still a potential threat to communities in its path. Here’s an update from Hawaii News Now.

First Responders, Robots and Ebola…. Wait… Robots? Yep. Robots. 

NPR ran a story a couple of days ago about first responders learning to use robots in disaster scenario drills in a training site called Disaster City. Apparently, the possibilities for handling future Ebola breakouts may include using robots in search and rescue operations. Researchers think they can design robots that may be able to interact with infected patients, or assisting caretakers with various other tasks. There are many questions that arise in creating such robots. The article is fascinating both for its description of the training site as well as possible uses for technology in a wide variety of disaster scenarios.