James Dailey’s Posts

• Consider Sidr

  Sidr, a massive tropical cyclone, is going to hit Bangladesh-Indian border within 24 hrs 7

  Posted 1 year, 11 months ago

  Over the past several days, I've monitored reports of Sidr, a Tropical Cyclone churning its way up the Bay of Bengal. The forecasting models are based almost entirely on satellite imagery, and earlier in the week the computer models were telling forecasters it would weaken as it headed north. It hasn't:

  THE CURRENT FORECAST CALLS FOR A LESS-PRONOUNCED WEAKENING PRIOR TO LANDFALL THAN THE PREVIOUS FORECAST DUE TO THIS ENHANCED UPPER LEVEL OUTFLOW. THE TRACK REASONING HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE THE LAST FORECAST. THE STORM IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TRACKING NORTHWARD UNTIL MAKING LANDFALL IN WESTERN BANGLADESH...

  Word… Read More

• Climate change and Pakistan's priorities

  Climate change mitigation is related to building democracy and decreasing poverty 0

  Posted 2 years ago

  While the climate change "issue" is covered frequently in the press and is implicitly or explicitly part of the U.S. presidential campaign, for developing countries it is just one of many pressing issues. For the man on the street, at least in many of the countries I visit, climate change is important but not urgent.

  The same could be said of many other issues, of course, but what distinguishes climate change is that it is perceived as "an act of God" on which individual actions have only minimal impact. Unless it is linked to issues of social justice, energy security,… Read More

• Western civilization?

  What a nice idea 45

  Posted 2 years, 4 months ago

  If Gandhi were around today, I think he would be less reasonable and tractable about the climate crisis; instead, he would challenge the moral integrity of so-called western civilization. The galvanizing march to the salt flats (the famous "Salt March") would be a tour of threatened island nations: Inuit seeking redress for loss of habitat, mountain people facing bewildering change, deluges in Bangladesh, landslides in the Philippines, and masses of people in the Indus-Ganges-Yangtze river basins facing an uncertain future over water supplies. It would be a march to bear witness to the… Read More

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James Dailey’s Recent Comments

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  Its about building the clean energy economy

  Thank you Sean for a great article on an important debate. As the Governor of Washington State just signed into law a statute that would start to link us here in the real Washington to a cap and market - first regionally - it is important for this debate to occur.

  The tax argument seems to be getting attention because people think of carbon only as an externality that should be regulated, like water pollution.  Indeed the EPA v Mass case solidified this view.  While this is true, it obscures the larger issue of transforming our economy away from carbon, obscures that we need the "reducers" or the "clean energy engine" to have a set of new revenues to make better energy choices possible.
  On Carbon taxes vs. carbon trading posted 1 year, 7 months ago 5 Responses

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  Debate is over, nay-sayers are irrelevant. Perhaps

  I visited those websites you mentioned.  What strikes me is that those of us in the "climate change is happening and there is no debate" camp come across - according to these people - as also saying "there is no debate, you bleedin' idiot". We need not be humble about what the science is telling us, and we need a frontal assault on these specious arguments.

  This is actually a problem for the "issue" (nice if it fit into that box) of climate change. My impression is that the vast majority of Americans, not to mention the rest of the 5.7 Billion people on the planet, are NOT fully aware that the debate has been settled on the science, and that we are now in for either a) a very interesting decade of responses; or, b) a slow slide over the edge of the abyss.  If people were fully aware, I would presume that they would "vote with their feet", and agree to just about any policy to fight climate change. On Search for local climate skeptic in Texas proves fruitless posted 1 year, 11 months ago 61 Responses

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  An update from Dhaka

  Here is what my colleague in Dhaka is reporting via cell phone connection on Friday local time.  

  • all of Bangladesh seems to be without electricity since 0100h last night.

  • all of Dhaka is without power for almost 20 hours now. telecom, water and gas is still functioning but unknown for how long. No information available on damage from cyclone or when power is expected back -and no TV to get info from.

  • critical infrastructure in Dhaka is running on diesel generators so far - including hospitals, shops and banks - for the entire day.
  On Sidr, a massive tropical cyclone, is going to hit Bangladesh-Indian border within 24 hrs posted 1 year, 11 months ago 7 Responses

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  At least they're *mostly* paying attention

  I recall 1995 when a similar report came out from IPCC and the rabid anticipation that it provoked. Ok, not really rabid anticipation as utter ho-hum.

  Seriously, I doubt more than a few thousand people worldwide ever read it.  I think I even needed a librarian's help at a UN Repository library to even find it.  It is too bad, to put it mildly, that stronger action wasn't taken then - when there was a chance to actually prevent some of the outcomes we are now likely to see.  Looking on the bright side, at least now governments, a multitude of NGOs, and even journalists will read the 2007 reports.

  http://www1.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/assessments-reports.htm

  What remains to be seen is, beyond the gnashing of teeth, rattling of sabers, shouting from soapboxes, advice column editorials, and climate change commemorative saris in Bali, will anything actually change? On IPCC Synthesis Report coming out Saturday posted 1 year, 11 months ago 1 Response

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  Update on Sidr Friday 16 Nov

  CNN is reporting score dead , a total of 169 from official sources, but communications is largely down so this may in fact rise.

  This blog spot has local perpectives on what has occured.  

  
  This posting has information from the Meteorological office in Dhaka and helps make a central point, which is that while almost any US Hurricane warrants massive media coverage the rest of the world sees on CNN, a massive Cyclone in the Bay of Bengal hardly warrants a mention.

  My last communication with friends in Dhaka - which is hundreds of miles from the coast were that they didn't expect much to happen, except of course that the power would predictably fail.  (which it does nearly every day in controlled "load shedding"). On Sidr, a massive tropical cyclone, is going to hit Bangladesh-Indian border within 24 hrs posted 1 year, 11 months ago 7 Responses