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Patricia, Strongest Hurricane Ever Seen In Eastern Pacific, Strikes In Mexico
CNN reports that Hurricane Patricia has made landfall in Mexico; Patricia is notable for having the third-lowest barometer reading ever recorded, and as "the strongest hurricane ever observed in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic oceans." Slate points out that at one point, "satellite estimates of Patricia’s intensity broke the Dvorak scale, peaking at 8.3 on the 8.0 scale. ... In fact, Patricia is now very close to the theoretical maximum strength for a tropical cyclone on planet Earth." The Weather Channel is tracking the storm's path, and predicts "catastrophic damage ... along a narrow path as the eye slices into the interior of southwest Mexico Friday night." Here's a map from the National Weather Service showing Patricia's track as well as projected path.
Oh, here we go again. Gloom and doom, etc. etc.
What I always want to know is even with unlimited money, just what do you think you could do about "global warming?" Our whole society runs on energy, and without it our crops don't get grown and they don't get to market. The fuels to make electricity require energy to move them from the oil or coal fields to the generators where they are turned into electricity. And cars and trucks run on oil, there are millions and millions of cars, and nobody has invented the "magic battery" to allow us to run them without emitting.
And if you try to spend unlimited money, you end up throwing people out of work. They go into poverty. What is more dangerous to your health than smoking? Living in poverty is more dangerous than smoking as it can take up to 10 years off your life. Smoking is only "good" for a 7 year reduction in lifespan. Plus, those kids that are living in poverty and experiencing undernourishment will have their brains fail to develop fully, and this damage cannot be reversed later.
And since the Chinese and the Indians don't give a flying F about the global warming scarecrow, they are going to continue to dig coal like it is going out of style. That means that the rest of the world that considers themselves "sane" will have to go to zero emissions. We can't do it. We don't have that tech yet. We may never get that tech. The only way we could achieve zero emissions is kill a really significant portion of the population and go back to animal-powered subsistence farming like the 1800's, but of course the lifespans would be like the 1800's. Izzat what we want to do? And, as many scientists claim, the AGW theory may yet be a hoax, and if so, we could kill millions for nothing.
People can whine about global warming all day, but unless they have a SOLUTION, I don't want to hear it. "Doing a little bit" that is insanely costly and doesn't amount to 0.05 degrees of reduction is just torturing the citizens for no good reason. I want a full-up, "completely stop the warming" solution or I say we don't spend a damned dime toward it. Half measures just harm all.