Situation Report

The Unseen Driver Behind the Migrant Caravan: Climate Change

Tue, 2018-10-30 05:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading to the US, walk alongside the road in Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico, on 24 October. Photograph: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - World Food Programme - FOOD SECURITY AND EMIGRATION - Why people flee and the impact on family members left behind in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras (24 page .PDF report)

While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worse

theguardian.com - by Oliver Milman, Emily Holden, and David Agren - October 30, 2018

Thousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.

But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change.

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This oil spill is poised to become one of the biggest environmental disasters in the US

Sun, 2018-10-28 23:16 — Kathy Gilbeaux

An aerial image of an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, taken on April 28, 2018. (Handout photo by Oscar Garcia-Pineda, Water Mapping, LLC)

circa.com - by Julia Boccagno and The Associated Press - October 24, 2018

Millions of gallons of oil have been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for more than 14 years, forming what is poised to become one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States, according the Gulf Restoration Network, which has been tracking the chronic leak.

"There has been an uptrend of the areas of the slick during the last two years," wrote Oscar Pineda-Garcia, who runs a company that maps oil spills and is an adjunct professor at Florida State University.

Environmental leaders suggest that the Taylor Energy Co. oil spill has dumped anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil a day since 2004, when its platform collapsed during Hurricane Ivan.

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FBI Searches Florida Mail Center in Hunt for Sender of Package Bombs

Fri, 2018-10-26 10:17 — Kathy Gilbeaux

FBI searches Florida mail center in hunt for sender of package bombs | Reuters

reuters.com - by Zachary Fagenson - October 25, 2018

Authorities found two more suspicious packages on Friday addressed to U.S. Senator Cory Booker and James Clapper, the former U.S. director of national intelligence, amid a manhunt for the person who sent bombs to prominent Democrats and critics of U.S. President Donald Trump . . .

. . . Meanwhile, a local police bomb squad and canine units joined federal investigators on Thursday to examine a sprawling U.S. mail distribution center at Opa-Locka, northwest of Miami, Miami-Dade County police said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that Florida appeared to be the starting point for at least some of the bomb shipments.

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Fwd: Statement on the October 2018 meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Fri, 2018-10-19 04:06 — mdmcdonald

GRS. All Africa RS

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We Have 12 Years to Limit Climate Change Catastrophe, Warns UN

Mon, 2018-10-08 10:02 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

Urgent changes needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty, says IPCC

the guardian.com - by Jonathan Watts - October 8, 2018

The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.

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Red Tide Confirmed in Miami-Dade, and Some Beaches Have Been Closed

Thu, 2018-10-04 17:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Red Tide has caused scores of dead sea-life to wash up on beaches in Southwest Florida. Footage shows scenes from Boca Grande beach on July 28 - by Jeremy Judkins via Storyful

miamiherald.com - BY DAVID J. NEAL, DOUGLAS HANKS AND JENNY STALETOVICH - October 4, 2018

A red tide that has sloshed up and down the Gulf Coast for nearly a year, leaving a wake of dead sea life, murky water and stinky beaches, has now landed on the state’s most crowded shores with the toxic algae confirmed Thursday in Miami-Dade County.

While far more milder than what’s appeared on the west coast — algae levels that cause blooms have not climbed above moderate so far — the spread raises concerns about a deepening crisis in a state already battling a summerlong blue green algae in Lake Okeechobee.

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Tropical Weather - Florence - News and Information Resources

Mon, 2018-10-01 00:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES RELATED TO TROPICAL WEATHER - FLORENCE . . .

CLICK HERE - FEMA - North Carolina Hurricane Florence (DR-4393)

CLICK HERE - FEMA - South Carolina Hurricane Florence (DR-4394)

CLICK HERE - Road Conditions - North Carolina Department of Transportation

CLICK HERE - Road Conditions - South Carolina Department of Transportation

CLICK HERE - North Carolina Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network

CLICK HERE - South Carolina braces for possible record flooding from Florence - September 24, 2018

CLICK HERE - Flooding: Dam breach at Duke plant; coal ash could spill - September 22, 2018

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Here's Where the Greatest Hurricane Threat Is in October

Sun, 2018-09-30 08:54 — Kathy Gilbeaux

These are the typical areas for development and tracks of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclones in October.

weather.com - by Linda Lam and Brian Donegan - September 27, 2018

At a Glance

Florida is the state most likely to see a landfalling hurricane in October.

Since 1950, 15 hurricanes have made a U.S. landfall in October, eight of which occurred in Florida.

In South Florida, October is the month with the most hurricane direct hits.

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Unusually Warm Sea Water Boosted 2017's Catastrophic Hurricane Season

Fri, 2018-09-28 09:28 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria. (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

. . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

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How a ‘Solar Battery’ Could Bring Electricity to Rural Areas

Thu, 2018-09-27 21:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

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