December 13, 2007
The Floods: "A Great Opportunity"
Western Washington was ravaged last week by very severe flooding in several counties. I-5 was shut down for days near Chehalis. Many rural bridges were wiped out, many homes were condemned if not washed away, and many businesses will be shut down permanently due to loss of inventory. Many families lost everything and were sleeping in shelters.
Amidst the many charitable organizations throughout the state seeking to raise funds for direct aid to those in need, at least one non-profit views the floods as "a great opportunity." The following is from the "Climate Dialogues Newsletter":
Last week western Washington had another record-setting storm, second only to the one we had in 2003. While this was a disaster for our region, it is also a great opportunity for us to invite others into dialogue about climate change. As you know from the Citizen's Climate Briefing, heavy precipitation events have already become more common, and this trend is likely to worsen. Now is the perfect time to write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper. Make the connection between these awful storms and climate change, and spread the word about the Climate Dialogues.
No matter how you feel about climate change, global warming or environmental public policy, I think we can all agree this has something of a tin ear to it. I am certain the author of the above comment does have concern for those who have suffered, but nowhere in the newsletter (reprinted in full below the fold) is that concern expressed. From this, one could surmise that the political opportunity to link the tragic flooding (similar to that which struck WA in 1996) to the public debate, was uppermost in the writer's mind when communicating to his constituency.
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Phil Mitchell
Date: Dec 10, 2007 10:12 PM
Subject: [climatedialogues] The Climate Summit, the storm, and more opportunities
To: climatedialogues@REDACTED
In this update:
* Help plan for the Citizen's Climate Summit
* Take action: December storm Letter to the Editor
* Mark your calendar: Lobby Day
* Mark your calendar: Focus the Nation
* Circles and more circles
Hi folks,
This is a long update, because there's a lot of exciting stuff happening in the next month or so.
Help plan the Citizen's Climate Summit -- Monday January 14th
A lot of people have expressed interest in our Citizen's Climate Summit. This will be an important early meeting to begin planning. It will be at our regular monthly meeting. If you can't attend this one, please email me ( phil@2people.org) and let me know that you're interested in helping with this. (Note that this month only, our regular meeting is on the second Monday, not the first.)
Monday, January 14th
6:30pm - 8:00 pm
Goods for the Planet
525 Dexter Ave N
Seattle View map
Take action: December storm Letter to the Editor
Last week western Washington had another record-setting storm, second only to the one we had in 2003. While this was a disaster for our region, it is also a great opportunity for us to invite others into dialogue about climate change. As you know from the Citizen's Climate Briefing, heavy precipitation events have already become more common, and this trend is likely to worsen. Now is the perfect time to write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper. Make the connection between these awful storms and climate change, and spread the word about the Climate Dialogues. Here's a useful article about the linkage: http://www.climatesolutions.org/?s=journal&aid=29
In your letter, it's a good idea to refer to a specific article that's just been published. Here are some links, but don't be limited to the Times and PI:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342268_stormwater05.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004063722_webstorm10m.html
Mark your calendar: Washington State Lobby Day
Save the dates to go to Olympia with hundreds of other citizens and meet with state legislators. More info at Priorities for a Healthy Washington.
Wednesday, January 23rd (Olympia)
Saturday, January 12th (prep workshop)
Mark your calendar: Focus the Nation
Focus the Nation is a nationwide teach-in about global warming happening on over 1000 college campuses on January 31st, 2008. The University of Washington will host one of the largest events, including an evening "town hall" panel with Jay Inslee, Ron Sims, and Greg Nickels. Please plan to attend! We hope to have a large Climate Dialogues contingent visible at Focus the Nation.
Thursday, January 31. More info ...
Circles and more circles
It's never too late to start a Climate Dialogues circle. As usual, if you haven't already done so, get in touch with Toni and let her know what neighborhood you're in and how you'd like to be involved. We can match you with a partner to help start your own circle, or hook you into one that's already forming. We also have dialogues forming in organizations and businesses. What about your organization?
cheers,
Phil
Phil Mitchell
Director, Greater Seattle Climate Dialogues
=============================================
This is the general announcement list for the Greater Seattle Climate Dialogues.
Of course it is also rather poor science to attribute precipitation anomalies to a warming trend: such anecdotal attribution leaves one vulnerable to the counter-evidence that in the last year we have had an
extremely low number of hurricanes, cyclones and tropical depressions, worldwide. Does that disprove the thesis? Of course not, but it is as anecdotal as the suggestion that global warming is to blame for these floods.
Posted by Brian Crouch at December 13, 2007
04:56 PM | Email This
1. They will use anything to try and bolster their cause. Warm weather, cold weather (yes, really), lots of rain, less than normal rain, etc. It is a waste of time. Where was this lady 1,000 years ago when the earth was much warmer, with not an automobile in sight???
2. What kind of sick twisted freak would say something like that ?
(only kidding - sort of). Sure, nothing that a carbon tax wouldn't fix and fund the Progressive political machinery.
3. State Rep. Fred Jarrett R-Mercer Island, is quitting the Republican Party and will run next year for the state Senate as a Democrat. His move, a year before the election, means the former Republican legislative stronghold through east King County is now pure Democratic territory. "I am not leaving the Republican Party" said Rep. Jarrett. "the Republican party left me. It has become a party of religious extremists who do not hold traditional Republican values of fiscal responsibility, and smaller government. It is more concerned with interfering in citizen's personal lives than governing responsibly."
4. If Republicans had any power around here, they might take this disaster as "a great opportunity" to wipe out public housing as they are in LA and Mississippi after Katrina; or replace what was once fishing villages with gold coast resorts as they are in the Asian tsunami areas; or blank out those pesky privacy rights and anti-torture laws like they have after 9-11.
See, please, Naomi Klein's book: The Shock Doctrine.
But that's right, R's don't have any power around here- can anyone say, Fred Jarrett?
5. Isn't this the same bunch who want to require an environmental impact review before tilling you garden?
Filling in the flood plain is about the only man made cause of the flooding.
6. I take it this means that we'll have an open seat for Jarrett's replacement in the House?
This also leaves Skip Priest as the only King County Republican legislator, if I remember correctly.
7. You might want to sober up before posting, blathering Michael. That was incoherent and inane.
8. Hi all,
We taxpayers are the insurers for buildings in the flood plane. Also, taxpayers are called in to build dikes and upstream dams which are projects that would not be undertaken without eminent domain powers and government's special ability to embark on projects that don't have a pipe-dream of profitability.
Conservatives should be talking about these issues, not leaving it all on the thin shoulders (figuratively speaking) of us greenies...
As far as global warming goes, if you do live in a flood plane in the NW, it may be that you can expect more frequent floods. Our two biggest days of rain ever by far were Pineapple express type storms in the last 10 years.
By the way, I feel bad for the flood victims and my heart goes out to the farmers who lost animals they were desperately trying to save.
Thanks all New Left Conservative #1
9. Fred Jarrett leaves the R party because he says they aren't the party of smaller govt, and then leaps to the party of MASSIVE government?? And the party of Christine Gregoire that has spent the way this legislature has spent recently?? Sorry, doesn't add up, Fred.
10. http://www.climate-solutions.org/?s=staff
http://www.climate-solutions.org/?s=board
http://washington.sierraclub.org/documents/political/Endorsements/Index.htm
http://cascade.sierraclub.org/directory/committees
I see that Michael McGinn of the Sierra Club is still out and about
11. It's becoming apparent down here in the Adna/Boistfort area that what caused the damage in the flooding was the inability to dredge or remove trees and stumps that were left in the Chehalis river upstream because of enviromental laws. The flooding and all the major damage occured well upstream of any dikes or levies. Thankyou enviromentalists, I hope you have a plan for dealing with earthquakes, because like flooding, they will occur every now and then no matter how high and mighty we think we are.
12. I saw a bumper sticker recently that said "IT'S NOT ABOUT SALMON-IT'S ABOUT CONTROL". Same with "global warming", Albore's wet-dream religion. I doubt the Dimocrats believe it either, but they'll use it to control every aspect of your lives.
13. I know the topic has shifted, but for the sake of correction of my earlier comment, I forgot about the 5th district.
14. aahh the persistence of the new communists, the ecommmunists. Will they require an environmental impact state before they are beheaded by the jihadists or start killing babies and the old and then the politically "confused"? They are outright hardcore haters of all life. But the joke is on them they think loiyers and laws will make us all bend to their will but along comes another group that wants to do its own will as well and they are coddling them as well because after all the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But what will they say when they are gettin' the beheadin's? Hey you can't do that the blood level in that river is too high for fish to survive.
Folks soon they will tell us eating is ruining the environment and that we must be restricted to two meals a day and then one meal and then what? Soon they will say camps are needed to concentrate population centers around sustainable practices of no transportation and then soon those camps will have no mechanized farming equipment so the work will be freedom to raise your one meal per day. Soon then only those deemed capable of reproducing the best manual farm labor will be allowed to have babies as having babies will harm the earth (wait this was just said in Australia). So folks what looks like a few pot heads that would take the real and activate misery of their fellow humans to mentally propagandize their fellow American to eventually enslave and slaughter us all is criminal and obscene.
Of course they would deny all of this but folks that pot of water your sitting is comfortably warm but how soon until the lid is on?? It will get real warm when the RCW is signed into law that says saving the earth you will be living in block 10 unit 41 floor 6 of the Earth Restoration Center of Human Concentration to save the open spaces. Those 120 square feet are going to look a little small are they not?
15. Global Warming is junk science. There is not one thing about it that cannot be disputed by a non-biased climatologist. These climate experts are called "deniers" which is what they call people like Iran's Ahmadinajad for disputing the holocaust. That's just what people do when they know they can't prove their arguement. It's childish. Unfortunately, most people can't or don't wish to recognize it. Lemmings follow the lead lemming. Someone knows this is rubbish but is using the it as a political hammer to gain personal power. If it wasn't so scary it would be pathetic.
16. Scott C:
John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel refers to global warming as the "greatest scam in history". A multitude of highly regarded scientists agree. But this isn't about science, it's about politics; the politics of control.
Also, your analogy with the Holocaust is rubbish, as sane people cannot dispute documented, undisputable history. Weather trends are quite another story.
Oh, but I am in agreement with the lemming theory. When Algore and his media pals head for the water, it's certain that agenda-driven, leftist fools will follow.
17. Scott C:
I may not have understood your comment on the holocaust until I read it a third time. I wholeheartedly agree with your stance on global warming, but I believe I read the holocaust part wrong initially. apologies.
18. You're right, using holocaust terms to describe global warming skeptics IS rubbish. We're on the same page;-)
19. I know of a landowner who was prosecuted for removing a tree from a creek. It would have flooded his home, and the enviro wacko leftist "Ecology" cop told him that's no good reason to disturb fish habitat.
As long as this extremist attitude is in charge of the regulatory agencies, nothing will be done.
None of the decision makers live in the flood area.
Funny how that works, huh?
20. Hi all,
Dredging wouldn't have had any effect on the flooding. It's simple geometry. The amount of extra carrying capacity you get in a river by dredging is dwarfed by the amount of water in the channel at the time of the flood--its obvious if you look at the huge area flooded that all that water wouldn't fit back into the small extra space created by dredging.
Dredging projects are usually designed mainly to spend tax money.
Also, many conservatives including on this site seem to take out their virulent hatred of environmentalists (which we may have earned, I've never been visited by someone enforcing env. laws) on the critters and the environment, and don't trot forward the tax-saving and non-coercive ways of saving the critters and the environment.
Here's an example: In this state alone, I believe we spend 1 billion total on hatcheries.
But if you talk to a fish biologist, hatcheries are actually harming survival of wild fish. So that creates an obvious avenue for saving both fish and tax money but conservatives like to fish and environmental liberals hate to cut spending, so the issue is never even raised.
Have a great day everybody
New Left Conservative #1
21. New Left Cons @ 20
Sober up; there is a stretch of the river at the north end of the bad flooded area that constricts the flow (under the brdge at Centralia). Tell us how you know that dredging in that stretch would have no effect.
Take a drive down there and look at it: the entire flood was forced to drain through that narrow channel bt the topography on bith sides of the bridge. It is at the next exit south from the outlet mall.
You may be right about "usually" dredging does this or that, but need to do more homework on this flood.
22. new left @ 20
Upon reading your post a second time I recommend that you leave the simple geometry to those who know their butt from a hot brick.
Generalizing as you did and trying to sound knowledgeable by citing "common sense" led you to a conclusion that actually does not fit common sense: your conclusion about the flood plain at Chehalis did not consider the "common sense" fact that the water could not drain out to the north as fast as it would if dredging had occurred. Go take a look and don't forget to think about the current velocity while you are staring at the proof that you are wrong.
And if you ever apply for a permit to build on vacant land you will be "visited by someone enforcing env. laws."
23. Hi all, inc. sober up,
It's true I was talking about dredging the entire stem of the river and thinking in generalities. I wasn't considering the possiblity that spot dredging could help get rid of a particular choke point. It's also true that I have no knowlege of the Chehalis, so I definitely have to say uncle, insofar as I have nothing further to counter your argument at this time, and thanks for addressing my points.
My opinions about dredging came from a lecture I attended quite a while ago given by Larry Kunstler who worked on a lawsuit involving the town of Hamilton and Skagit County. (Hamilton accused Skagit Co of narrowing the river by 200ft. at Hamilton to make it the weakest link). He showed a cross sectional view of an actual flood on the Skagit showing how much water was in the valley at the height of the flood which showed vastly more water than could ever possibly be carried within the banks and then asked the rhetorical question "How deep are you going to dredge that river?" You had to see it, but everybody got the point and laughed.
I'm sure everyone's amused.
Have a great day
New Left Conservative #1
24. What happened during this storm and flooding is typical of what happens when left wing, socialist wacko keep getting elected into state offices. Zero common sense is one of their traits. Also, the enviro weenies have way, way too much control over every day events. These peolple are definate nut jobs. Man mad global warming is a myth.....its all about control...world gov control at that.....carbon credits/trading...carbon offsets...all run by the corrupt un......lets throw these bums out on their collective rears.