[b4its2late]

Bush’s Fault.

[blam]

Before And After Photos Of The Delta

[Billthedrill]

Mr. Casey tactfully refrains from admitting that at least part of the problem is that the Burmese junta refuses to allow relief workers or supplies into the area. Better to blame global warming.

[Bean Counter]

When did Ray Nagin move to Burma??...

[inkling]

If you want to help, click here.

[hinckley buzzard]

"How is it possible that there was such a great death toll in the 21st century, when we have imagery from satellites in real time and there are specialized meteorology centers in all the regions?"

Because, you moron, you're dealing with a goverment run by a military junta who couldn't care less about their pathetic subjects. Geez. UN, grow up.

[Eye On The Left]

Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming

"Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPR’s May 6 'Fresh Air' broadcast did just that. He was interviewed by “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross about the release of his book, 'The Assault on Reason,' in paperback.

'And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,' Gore said. 'And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.'"

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080506160205.aspx

[ApplegateRanch]

"It's an expensive lesson, but it has been one taught repeatedly," he said. "You just wonder why governments don't get on this."

Because they can't get blood out of turnips, and can't get taxes out of mangrove swamps.

[Whispering Smith]

As we all knew, it is our fault.

[JimSEA]

When you think of the houses that these folks live in and which are normally perfectly adequate, you can understand the death toll. This is a tropical river delta. All you need for a house is a platform on posts above most of the periodic floods, a roof to keep the rain off you and some light material (woven bamboo) for the sides to give privacy. Actually, it is so hot and humid that you don't want any more. Additionally, the delta is only ten to twenty feet above sea level so a storm has little in its way as it sweeps over the rice fields.

Add to the the incredible fact that the f***** generals refused to pass any warning on to these people even though they had it a week in advance with timely critical updates. The same generals have sat on their hands with their troop in the street to preserve order.

Global Warming my a** Human perfidy and evil more likely. That and one hell of a storm.

[Thrownatbirth]

"..their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions."

I knew we'd be blamed somehow.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Some environmentalists suggested global warming may have played a role.

Last year the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that warming oceans could contribute to increasingly severe cyclones with stronger winds and heavier rains.

Except that the oceans are COOLER THIS YEAR, Nimrods!

[SuziQ]

There also wasn't any coordinated effort on the part of the junta to move people out of low-lying areas, even though information was available about the expected time and location of landfall.

Sounds like Ray Nagin and Ma Blanco.

[Dick Vomer]

[Eye On The Left]

This just in from the scientific journal Nature:

Nature 453, 84-88 (1 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06921; Received 25 June 2007; Accepted 14 March 2008; Corrected 8 May 2008

Advancing decadal-scale climate prediction in the North Atlantic sector

The climate of the North Atlantic region exhibits fluctuations on decadal timescales that have large societal consequences. Prominent examples include hurricane activity in the Atlantic1, and surface-temperature and rainfall variations over North America2, Europe3 and northern Africa4. Although these multidecadal variations are potentially predictable if the current state of the ocean is known (5, 6, 7), the lack of subsurface ocean observations8 that constrain this state has been a limiting factor for realizing the full skill potential of such predictions (9). Here we apply a simple approach—that uses only sea surface temperature (SST) observations—to partly overcome this difficulty and perform retrospective decadal predictions with a climate model. Skill is improved significantly relative to predictions made with incomplete knowledge of the ocean state (10), particularly in the North Atlantic and tropical Pacific oceans. Thus these results point towards the possibility of routine decadal climate predictions. Using this method, and by considering both internal natural climate variations and projected future anthropogenic forcing, we make the following forecast:

Over the next decade, the current Atlantic meridional overturning circulation will weaken to its long-term mean; moreover, North Atlantic SST and European and North American surface temperatures will cool slightly, whereas tropical Pacific SST will remain almost unchanged.

Our results suggest that global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade, as natural climate variations in the North Atlantic and tropical Pacific temporarily offset the projected anthropogenic warming.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7191/abs/nature06921.html

[NonValueAdded]

There also wasn't any coordinated effort on the part of the junta to move people out of low-lying areas, even though information was available about the expected time and location of landfall.

Ah, so they were Nagin'ed to death.

[Eye On The Left]

Gore makes the dishonest claim that it was CO2 that warmed the earth to get us out of these past 4 glaciation periods above (roughly every 100,000, the result of periodic changes in Earth's orbit and spin axis), yet one can clearly see that temperature increases (the blue line) actually PRECEEDED CO2 increases (red line) all throughout this 400,000 year time interval that Gore repeatedly refers to as the 'proof'. In fact, temperature increases precede CO2 increases by an of average 800 years! There really isn't any evidence in the geologic record that CO2 has caused significant global warming. Water vapor, by far, is the most important of the greenhouse gas, accounting for around 75-95% of the GH effect -another "inconvenient truth" Gore left out of his sci-fi flick.(BP = before present).

[Yardstick]

"Storms like this do most of their killing through floods, with salt water being even more dangerous than fresh water."

Why would salt water make a flood more dangerous?

[JerseyHighlander]

Found these maps and several more made yesterday by www.UNOSAT.org :

http://unosat.web.cern.ch/unosat/asp/prod_free.asp?id=66

Estimated Total Population Living within Flood-Affected Areas, Myanmar
 International Charter Space and Major Disasters

Product ID: 1177 - 6 May, 2008 - English

GLIDE: TC-2008-000057-MMR

Product FOOTPRINT (LAT x LONG, WSG84 Geographic, decimal degrees)
TopLeft: 18.3 x 94.13
BottomRight: 15.6 x 97.75 This map provides an estimate of those potentially-affected people living directly within flooded areas of southern Myanmar. Red areas shown in the map represent standing flood waters identified from MODIS satellite imagery acquired on 5 May 2008 at a spatial resolution of 250m. Population estimates have been aggregated by township using the LandScan 2005 database. This flood detection is a preliminary analysis & has not yet been validated in the field. Map scale for A3: 1:1,200,000; Projection; UTM Zone 46 North; Datum: WGS 1984

Source(s):
Cyclone Data : NOAA, Un.of Hawai‘i, Tropical Storm Risk
GIS Data : USGS, NGA, ESRI, Respond/Keyobs
Population Data : LandScan 2005
Satellite Data : MODIS-Aqua & Terra
Imagery Date : 5 May & 15 April 2008
Resolution : 250m
Flood Analysis : UNOSAT (5 May 2008)
Map Production : UNOSAT (6 May 2008)

UNOSAT_Myanmar_Nargis_PopulationEstimate_Overview_Lowres_v1.pdf (1.1MB),
UNOSAT_Myanmar_Nargis_PopulationEstimate_Overview_Highres_v1.pdf (2.7MB)