LibertyBell

Thought it was killed by a cat that roamed into its enclosure? Crazy article about geneticists talking about bringing the bird back into existence by the 2030s. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2014/why-passenger-pigeon-went-extinct The story about how they were killed is horrendous. I consider this a form of genocide and the people who did this should be punished just as harshly. Too bad none are alive today. Back then conservatives were actually conservationists too. Contemporary environmentalism arrived too late to prevent the passenger pigeon’s demise. But the two phenomena share a historical connection. “The extinction was part of the motivation for the birth of modern 20th century conservation,” says Temple. In 1900, even before Martha’s death in the Cincinnati Zoo, Republican Congressman John F. Lacey of Iowa introduced the nation’s first wildlife-protection law, which banned the interstate shipping of unlawfully killed game. “The wild pigeon, formerly in flocks of millions, has entirely disappeared from the face of the earth,” Lacey said on the House floor. “We have given an awful exhibition of slaughter and destruction, which may serve as a warning to all mankind. Let us now give an example of wise conservation of what remains of the gifts of nature.” That year Congress passed the Lacey Act, followed by the tougher Weeks-McLean Act in 1913 and, five years later, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protected not just birds but also their eggs, nests, and feathers.

How does Denver, at over a mile in elevation, get so many more 90 degree days compared to NYC and even Philly?

Yes, and especially Fukushima since it was the most recent one, they shouldn't be putting reactors in tsunami prone areas.

I was watering the very edge of my very dry property about an hour ago and I spied a blackish moving shape out of the corner of my eye. It was a black bear roaming around just beyond my fence line, maybe about 10 feet to my right! You can bet I rapidly finished watering and high tailed it back into my house (making sure no trash was outside first of course.) This is in my other home in NE PA and we're expecting to have frost and maybe even a freeze tonight. When do these creatures go into hibernation? This is the closest I've ever been to a bear encounter.....

Courtesy of wannabehippie from the political side.....the more and more I read about nuclear vs fossil fuels makes me wonder about the integrity and/or intelligence of people who support fossil fuels over nuclear energy..... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-17/abandoned-gas-wells-are-left-to-spew-methane-for-eternity

cats, dogs and rats have driven several species to extinction....and of course humankind and its evil ways. Wasn't the very last Passenger Pigeon eaten by a cat? And of course the billions before it who were thoughtlessly hunted down by humans.

Looks like JFK could get into the 40s also! A first for Sept there since 2013 also?

ACE is probably a better metric for comparing activity between seasons but other factors (like how many storms make landfall, the amount of rainfall they deliver, how many are intensifying at landfall, etc., are all factors that should be considered.)

I thought I saw that too and then I saw another graphic mentioning the 90s, I was trying to figure out if maybe that was for something else?

most landfalls that we've ever had too. It wont equal 1933 or 2005 in terms of hurricanes or majors or ACE, but the TS number is at a historic pace even if you exclude a few of them.

First time since the 90s? I remember you posted earlier that the previous 40s in Sept was back in 1997? Does that include JFK?

we're going to have Gamma before the night is over. a record double digit number of storms in September, headed to at least 30 this season.

JFK 48

And negative again in May.

I wanted to post more on nuclear and how much better it is than any fossil fuel. Right now we get about 20% of our energy from nuclear, 10% from green energy and 70% from fossil fuels. If we could get that 20% nuclear up to 50% or more by 2030, we would be well on our way to achieving our goals of a sustainable future. Not only is nuclear less of a threat to human health and longevity than fossil fuels, burning coal actually releases more radiation than a nuclear power plant does. Two academic sources follow below: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/reconsidering-risks-nuclear-power/ Fossil fuels have a host of problems themselves. Thebyproducts from burning fossil fuels are toxic pollutants that produce ozone, toxic organic aerosols, particulate matter, and heavy metals. The World Health Organization has stated the urban air pollution, which is a mixture of all of the chemicals just described, causes 7 million deaths annually or about 1 in 8 of total deaths. Furthermore, coal power plants release more radioactive material per kWh into the environment in the form of coal ash than does waste from a nuclear power plant under standard shielding protocols. This means that, under normal operations, the radioactive waste problem associated with one of the most mainstream energy sources in use actually exceeds that from nuclear energy. In fact, on a per kWh of energy produced basis, both the European Union and the Paul Scherrer Institute, the largest Swiss national research institute, found an interesting trend regarding the fatalities attributable to each energy source. Remarkably, nuclear power is the benchmark to beat, outranking coal, oil, gas, and even wind by a slight margin as the least deadly major energy resource in application (see Figure 3). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/ Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

It's interesting that 1979 was one of our latest minimum ice extents, especially considering that 1979 was one of our coldest winters, almost historic in terms of how widespread the cold was in winter 1979-80! edit that was 1978-79 not 1979-80 lol...I do remember that there was an anomalous early season snow event in the Mid Atlantic in October 1979 though....the area from DC to Philly got around 2-4" of snow? Either way a 9/20 or later min ice extent day seems to be about a once a decade occurrence, except for the notable exception of 1989 and 1990, when it happened in back to back years, the height of our famous snow drought (high solar influence back then?)

Nature mimicking the inequalities of human society on all levels we are seeing now.

We've seen the rapid rise in total annual precip here that you mentioned, as well as rapidly rising dewpoints and a much higher frequency of big 3" rainfall events.

I can tell you this though, the chances of us remaining below the 2C limit set by the IPCC for "irreversible damaging consequences" is probably 10% or lower. That isn't just because of US politics, but because of global politics. We should have made a bigger switch to nuclear years ago and then we could have completely eliminated fossil fuel consumption by 2030. That isn't going to happen and I have big doubts about 2050 also, because of the corrupt political influence of the cartel. It will only happen when people have to start moving away from the coast and avoid living near forested areas and the cost of billion dollar disasters is so high that our economy becomes crippled. That time is coming soon. All the trends are pointed in that direction. And if it takes for the climate to cripple our economy, then the sooner it happens the better. Bill Gates was right in saying that the climate change problem makes the pandemic look like child's play. History is going to look back at this time period as full of cowards who didn't have the guts to do what needed to be done. If there is anyone left to look back lol.

It seems like the average minimum is around the first day of fall now?

ha that's true, but I only took a video no images sorry and will post it when I get it up on youtube. I opted for video because the birds looked so adorable splashing around in the water and fighting with each other for room lol.

But we saw it in early August with Isaias. Either way, I think we aren't done with EC TC. The next one we get will most likely be from the Greek alphabet lol.

a college friend of mine was visiting when Floyd hit, he had never experienced a TC before and he asked me...so this is it? It's nothing more than a boring old rainstorm! He wasn't around for Irene or Sandy lol. Speaking of which, wasn't the 1903 Hurricane similar to Sandy with its track?

lol DSLR are ancient history, mirrorless cameras with fully electronic shutters are the new thing. I ditched all my DSLR a few years ago.

Saw an excellent doc on PBS that showed how the Starfish is one of those very important keystone species that indicates the health of the overall environment- and based on that, it isn't looking so good.