USA as seen from space: are we using too much electricity

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USA as seen from spaceare we using too much
electricity?
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Problems somewhere on the globeevery year
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Something new to worry about? Seasons of
Superstorms

• The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season
• 27 named storms, record setting
• 2004 Another season of Superstorms
• The 2004 tropical storm season
• In the Atlantic
• 4 hurricanes in Florida (record setting)
• In the Pacific
• 10 typhoons in Japan (record setting)

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Scientists predict more superstorms with
warmer atmosphere

• Foreseeable
• seasons of superstorms
• A series of low-intensity storms can be as
  damaging as a single superstorm

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Climate, water and weather have two facesa
bright side and a dark side

• Bright side
• People generally have enough water to drink, to
  grow food, to run factories, water for irrigating
  dry lands and even deserts

• Dark side
• Droughts, floods, fires, heat waves, hurricanes,
  tornadoes, etc.

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WHAT GETS YOUR ATTENTION?

• The sunny side of climate
• or the dark side?

Tropical resort
Peru Flash Floods
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Reporters talk about the dark side Doom and
gloom stories sell papers
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Weather makes the news
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Global warming and the weather
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Global Warming
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From tiki.oneworld.net/
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SuperCyclone Orissa 1999
Bangladesh
INDIA
Bay of Bengal
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Maemi destruction 2003
Korea
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Super Sandstorm 2002 (China)
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Dust Storm impacts on visibility and health at
the Great Wall of China
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Sahara Desert dust lands on coral in Caribbean
Sahara Dust
West Africa
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the 1997-98 El Niño of the Century
Did you know A SUPER El Nino was forecast for
2006?
Jan 97
Mar 98
Nov 97
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The Internet reporting on superstorms
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Climate change is staying in the NEWS
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We need Nature more than Nature needs us
The planet in 1988
The climate system in 2020?
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Coal too much of a good thing?
English trade coin honoring coal and shipping
industries, 1790s