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Warming oceans and Hurricane Wilma

In Environmental Science & Technology, Paul Thacker interviews Judith Curry, climatologist and coauthor of a recent paper in Science on the connection between warming oceans and hurricanes. In her work she found -- as did two similar papers published in peer-reviewed journals recently -- that hurricane intensity is increasing, and it's linked to increasing ocean temperatures, and this is true across the globe. She says:

... you can't use hurricanes to prove that there is global warming. What you can do is show an unambiguous link between the increase in hurricane intensity and the warming sea surface temperatures. And if you look for why the sea surface temperatures are warming since the 1970s, you don't have any explanation other than greenhouse warming.

In totally unrelated news, Hurricane Wilma is the most powerful storm in Atlantic history -- it went from fairly mild to the strongest effing storm ever in 18 hours, blowing away the previous record for speed of intensification.

... Keith Blackwell, hurricane researcher at the University of South Alabama's Coastal Weather Research Center in Mobile ... said Wilma's rapid intensification was caused by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean, which have spawned other extremely powerful storms.

...

"There are so many astounding things about this season," Blackwell said.

Wacky.

Cameron, how do you do it?

Looks like Cameron Diaz has had a busy week (but don't all celebs?). After winning an Environmental Media Award for her show Trippin', she surprised a class at Stanford University when she helped lead a lecture on environmentally friendly design with enviro celebrity William McDonough.

Her appearance is part of mtvU's "Stand-In: Who's Coming To Your Class?" which will be premiering on mtvU Uber on Nov. 1st.

What is mtvU Uber you ask? Like Current TV and Participate.net, members of the mtvU community can help shape news and other content by submitting videos online:

"With today's announcement, we are handing over an entire channel online to college students and everyone who wants new music," said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU. "mtvU Uber gives them the power to create and program their own channel, and will remain in perpetual beta mode as they experiment and pioneer the digital future."

If you thought Cameron Diaz leading a class on eco-friendly design sounds a little odd, just imagine Marilyn Manson teaching little Johnny and Suzie Arts in Society!

Rebuilding: Mississippi renewal

Everything I've heard about the Mississippi Renewal Forum leads me to believe it is (was, I guess, since it ended this week) a really kick-ass example of exactly what's needed in the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort. Time will tell whether local communities take the advice meted out in the many New Urbanist presentations, but it sounds like everybody, including Gov. Haley Barbour, was impressed. Click around the site a bit -- there's a daily journal and tons of pictures and descriptions from the presentations. Great stuff.

Update [2005-10-21 15:18:58 by David Roberts]: More at inhabitat, the NYT, and the radio program Open Source.

Barringer lets one get by

The New York Times' Felicity Barringer gets dinged by Media Matters for credulously passing on a bit of administration propaganda about the Arctic Refuge. C'mon, Ms. B, you gotta be on your guard with these people.

Readers talk back about vegetarianism and soy

  Umbra’s column on the environmental impact of soy vs. that of meat inspired readers of all stripes — OK, mostly the stripes that are anti-soy — to share their opinions. Here’s a sample of the deluge that hit our inbox, and there’s a whole lot more posted in Gristmill, our blog. Dear Editor: What […]

Germany’s environment minister on eschewing nukes

Five years ago, Germany officially decided to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2020. This past May, the second of 19 plants went offline.

Outgoing German environment minister (and member of the Green Party) Jurgen Trittin has a succinct piece on BBC explaining the government's rationale and arguing for seeing the policy through.

Far from being a necessary element in Germany's quest to meet Kyoto targets, he says, "technically speaking, this base-load relic of the past is standing in the way of flexible and intelligent electricity production." Word.

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing map

Not really sure what to make of this. Apparently the government's map of the Arctic Refuge is gone -- poof, vanished. Why on earth, you're wondering, does the government only have one detailed map of the Refuge? I don't know. Why was it sitting behind some file cabinet? You got me. Was it thrown out deliberately or by accident? Nobody knows. Does it matter? Felicity Barringer thinks maybe so:

When It Rainforests, It Pours

Amazon logging damage: now with twice the depressingness You know all that damage logging has done to the Amazon rainforest? It’s not as bad as you thought. It’s twice as bad! Researchers have developed a way to wring far more detail out of satellite photos, a bittersweet accomplishment in light of the results. Turns out […]

Kenya’s president sells out national parks for politics

If pieces of land could speak, that's the question the 155 sq. mile Amboseli National Game Reserve in Kenya might be asking itself. The Game Reserve was, until earlier this month, a National Park -- it was run by national authorities. President Kibaki, breaking half a dozen laws and procedures, degazetted Amboseli. He downgraded it to a Game Reserve, and gave control and management of it to the Maasai people who live in the area. The Maasai have no training or background in wilderness management or infrastructure maintenance.

Makower thinks the retail giant might just be turning over a new leaf

We debated whether to write up this story of Wal-Mart's alleged "going green" in Daily Grist, but at a quick glance it seemed trivial and a bit self-serving. But Joel Makower, who knows as much about these matters as anyone, thinks there may be something to it.

I, for one, am skeptical that the great, great Wal-Mart turnaround is nigh. But I'm also not ready to write off Lee Scott or his company as sustainability poseurs. I believe we'll see a steady stream of new initiatives coming out of the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters in coming months.

He even quotes an anonymous colleague tantalizingly saying, "This has the potential to be the fastest turnaround ever on sustainability and the most comprehensive." If that were true it could have potentially epochal consequences. As Joel notes, Wal-Mart may account for as much as 1% of China's entire GDP. That's a lotta skrill.

Of course some folks will say that "green Wal-Mart" is an oxymoron. Activists of virtually every stripe have legitimate beefs with the company. But the thing here is to be dispassionate. The 'Mart has more power than many governments. It is, for good or ill, here, and enormously influential. If even a fraction of its power can be turned to stimulating green markets and establishing green practices, it could be a game changer.