Danger Zone: Earth's New Climate Tipping Point - Thom Hartmann

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The Earth finds itself in uncharted climate waters and there are differing theories as to what it might mean for the future of the planet. The change, which occurred sometime during the past year, has left scientists baffled and life on Earth in peril. - Aired on 10/25/2023.

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1. AP: Hurricane Otis unleashes massive flooding in Acapulco, triggers landslides before dissipating

Hurricane Otis unleashes massive flooding in Acapulco, triggers landslides before dissipating

BY MARK STEVENSON AND MARÍA VERZA
Updated 11:31 PM EDT, October 25, 2023

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Otis tore across Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a powerful and dangerous Category 5 hurricane Wednesday, unleashing massive flooding in the resort city of Acapulco and setting off looting as desperate relatives tired of waiting for help to arrive.

While little is known about possible deaths or the full extent of the damage — Acapulco was still mostly inaccessible by road as of late Wednesday — experts are calling Otis the strongest storm in history to make landfall along the Eastern Pacific Coast.

Many of the once sleek beachfront hotels looked like toothless shattered hulks, after Hurricane Otis blew out hundreds — and possibly thousands — of hotel windows.

Choked with mud and debris, with no electricity or internet service, the Pacific coast resort descended into chaos after the storm, as thousands engaged in massive looting.

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2. AP: Forecasters were caught off guard by Otis' growth. But warming means more hurricanes like it

Forecasters were caught off guard by Otis’ growth. But warming means more hurricanes like it

BY SETH BORENSTEIN
Updated 1:55 PM EDT, October 26, 2023

Hurricane Otis turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists are struggling to figure out how — and why they didn’t see it coming.

Usually reliable computer models and the forecasters who use them didn’t predict Otis’ explosive intensification, creating a nightmare scenario of an unexpectedly strong storm striking at night. At least 27 people are dead and four missing in the destruction along Mexico’s Pacific coast, with devastation that extends for miles.

All this after Acapulco was told to expect a tropical storm just below hurricane strength. Just 24 hours later, Otis blasted ashore with 165 mph (266 kph) winds, the strongest landfall of any East Pacific hurricane.

In just 12 hours, Otis’ strength more than doubled from 70 mph (113 kph) winds to 160 mph (257 kph), also a record, as it neared the coast. And it got even stronger before it struck. Storms typically gain or lose a few miles per hour in 12 hours, though some outliers gain 30 to 50 mph (48 to 80 kph) in a day.

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3. AP: Hurricane Otis survivors search for friends and necessities in devastated Acapulco

Hurricane Otis survivors search for friends and necessities in devastated Acapulco

BY MARK STEVENSON
Updated 9:24 PM EDT, October 26, 2023

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Survivors of a Category 5 storm that killed at least 27 people as it devastated Mexico’s resort city of Acapulco spent Thursday searching for acquaintances and necessities and hoping that aid would come quickly in the wake of Hurricane Otis.

The Pacific storm had strengthened with shocking swiftness before slamming into the coast early Wednesday, and the Mexican government deployed around 10,000 troops to deal with the aftermath. But equipment to move tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets was slow in arriving.

Resentment grew Thursday in impoverished neighborhoods as residents worried that government attention would go to repairing infrastructure for the city’s economic engine of tourism rather than helping the neediest.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife from a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, sought help in looking for a 3-year-old girl who was swept away from her mother in a mudslide. She went from soldier to soldier trying to interest any one of them in the tragedy that occurred on her street at the height of the storm.

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Video at link…

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4. Reuters: Looting breaks out in Mexico's Acapulco after devastating Hurricane Otis

Looting breaks out in Mexico's Acapulco after devastating Hurricane Otis

By Alexandre Meneghini
October 27, 202312:04 PM EDT

ACAPULCO, Mexico, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Looting broke out in the Mexican city of Acapulco after the popular beach resort was battered on Wednesday by record-breaking Hurricane Otis, which killed 27 people and left residents grappling with shortages of food and water.

The lethal Category 5 storm left damage estimated in the billions of dollars.

"There were acts of looting in some places because there was an emergency," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, urging residents not to take advantage of the situation.

On Thursday evening, people carried off goods including food, water and toilet paper from stores in Acapulco.

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