'A PERFECT STORM' My Editorial On Hurricanes & Bush **PLEASE READ**

[Placebo]

This was an editorial I had to right for my composition & rhetoric class, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS THINK! :)

A PERFECT STORM

It’s hurricane season…again. But along with the beautiful homes perched dramatically on the edges of cliffs, automobiles, farm animals, and people being washed away, there are some big stories slipping down into the deep as well.

As Hurricane Ivan and its powerful winds smashed into the southeastern coast of the United States, scientists told Congress on Wednesday that global warming could produce stronger and more destructive hurricanes in the future.

Global warming will increase the temperature of ocean water that fuels hurricanes, leading to stronger winds, heavier rains and larger storm surges, the researchers told the Senate Commerce Committee.

In the meantime, of course, while President Bush is on camera asking fellow Americans to pray for the brave souls living in these states in crisis, little attention is paid to the fact that Bush refused to join the 1997 Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gases, saying it would be ‘too costly to the economy.’

Too costly to the economy.

Bush on Wednesday assured the governors of states in the path of Hurricane Ivan of federal aid to deal with damage from the storm. "The government is ready to help," Bush said he told the leaders of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana."I told all four governors the people of this country are praying for their safety," Bush said. "We pray that the storm passes as quickly as possible without any loss of life or loss of property." On Tuesday he asked Congress for an additional $3.1 billion to help Florida and other states recover from recent hurricanes.

Just who exactly was the Kyoto treaty too expensive for? Certainly not the American tax payer, apparently. Aside from massive amounts of government aid being funneled to relief efforts, the cost for insurance companies has been immense. Hurricane Charley cost insurers about $6.8 billion and Hurricane Frances cost an estimated $6 billion.

There is the human cost as well; an 8 year old girl being crushed under a fallen tree and killed, a family whose house was destroyed who couldn’t afford to renew their storm insurance because their jobs were outsourced to a foreign land. These people’s lives are changed forever. (This is the administration which has stated that outsourcing is good for the economy)

Jobs will be lost, houses, communities, streets, bridges, beaches will all need to be rebuilt, and will all cost a massive amount of money.

You will never hear about any of this background info on the evening news, however. They will only interrupt the 24/7 continuous shots of their reporters standing in brightly coloured oversized rain coats, intrepidly trying to hang on to any metal bar that might be near and speaking garbled into water covered mics, to report that Bush’s post-convention bounce continues to balloon.

Oh, and if you haven’t had enough, Ralph Nader is back. After a court decision striking him from the ballot, his name was allowed back onto the ballot in Florida after confusion that the hurricane might effect the arrival of absentee ballots. In a letter to elections supervisors, Florida state elections director Dawn Roberts said she was forced to act because of uncertainty given the impending approach of Hurricane Ivan. And she noted, supervisors must postmark overseas ballots by Saturday.

So lets recap, shall we? President bush refused to join the Kyoto treaty on the basis that it would hurt the US economy and cost Americans too much money. In the meantime, hurricanes, which experts say will only increases in strength and frequency as a result of global warming, which the Kyoto treaty would have begun to curb, are sticking us with an astronomically high human and economic cost, while the polluters get tax cuts, and this administration continues to roll back seemingly every environmental regulation on industry, no matter how sane and reasonable it may be. The media is too concerned with the excitement of putting their correspondents out in the wind and rain to pause for a second and report back to the people with some perspective. And Nader has been put on the ballot in Florida again which could very well cost Kerry crucial votes and deliver 25 electoral votes to Bush in November.

Bush couldn’t have asked for a more perfect storm.

[Mika]

1. Great! Please read this and incorporate it into your piece

State may consider property tax breaks
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9674802.htm

TALLAHASSEE - (AP) -- State lawmakers may consider whether to give tax breaks to thousands of people who got their property tax bills for homes severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Charley and Frances.

The details of how homeowners would get relief are unclear but lawmakers could consider the issue during a special legislative session in December, which Gov. Jeb Bush may call to help the state rebound from the storms that caused billions in damage.

''Why should you pay taxes . . . when that's not the value of the property?'' said Dominic Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch, a watchdog group.

But Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said the issue was more complicated because school districts and local governments rely heavily on property taxes to pay for services. Lawmakers might have to consider using state or federal funding to give tax breaks to homeowners, avoiding education shortfalls.

More.. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9674802.htm



This all fits into the Norquist/Bushie plan.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. My only suggestion would be to expand the section

about scientists telling Congress global warming will cause more hurricanes. It may not need to be substantially longer but I'd like to see some names and titles of scientists and a direct quote or two, plus names of committee(s) holding the hearings. I suggest this because I haven't heard one damn thing about these hearings and your prof may not have, either.

Otherwise, good job. :thumbsup:

[pretzel4gore]

3. well done...

mind you, we can't reason with the criminals in control of the mass media...and w/out the whores pimping bush's dope, the bush gang never the problem they are today (many pundits are saying the bush clan has 'clawed' their way to prominence....haha bs!...they were born in position, if anything, they've ruined the house they inherited!
Still, you're right; Kyoto was a start on a very serious problem (which will never get addressed, now, unfortunately)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Hmmm, where to begin?

>>
This was an editorial I had to right for my composition & rhetoric class, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS THINK! :)
<<

Well, write off the bat....

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Yes, but we were asked to critique the editorial,

not the intro!

[Medium Baby Jesus]

5. Everything I have read or heard (news)

says the one degree increase in temperature in the Atlantic has nothing to do with global warming. It is a natural cycle that last occurred forty years ago. In a few years it will pass only to return later.

Edit:

Here is a discussion from NOAA about the cycle:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane.html

*SNIP*

2. Expected Climate Conditions – Active Atlantic multi-decadal signal, above-normal Atlantic SSTs, and borderline ENSO-neutral/ weak El Nino conditions

Beginning with 1995 all but two Atlantic hurricane seasons have been above normal. The exceptions are the two El Niño years of 1997 and 2002. This increased activity contrasts sharply with the generally below-normal seasons observed during the previous 25-year period 1970-1994. The atmospheric and oceanic conditions controlling these very long-period fluctuations in hurricane activity are referred to as the Atlantic multi-decadal signal.

The active phase of the Atlantic multi-decadal signal has been a primary contributing factor to the increased hurricane activity since 1995 (Goldenberg et al. 2001). Key aspects of this signal (Chelliah and Bell, 2004) are again in place, and are conducive to an above normal season. These aspects include 1) warmer SSTs across the tropical Atlantic, 2) an amplified subtropical ridge at upper levels across the central and eastern North Atlantic, 3) reduced vertical wind shear in the deep tropics over the central North Atlantic, which results from an expanded area of easterly winds in the upper atmosphere (green arrows) and weaker easterly trade winds in the lower atmosphere (dark blue arrows), and 4) a configuration of the African easterly jet (wavy light blue arrow) that favors hurricane development from tropical disturbances moving westward from the African coast.

*SNIP*