Doubt Climate Change? Look At These 'Before and After" Photographs!

 

 

Recently a survey was taken of all the serious science every done on the issue of climate change. An astounding 98% of scientists were in agreement that climate change is happening now to our fragile planet. So it is with some amazement that Republicans are still challenging the very concept of it.

These photographs from Business Insider should make you a believer. The site says:

Almost all scientists now agree that global climate change is caused by humans. A steadily-warming planet impacts the environment in many different ways.

Rising global temperatures, largely due to man-made greenhouse gases, are the source of widely-discussed observable changes to the Earth like melting glaciers, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and floods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America Has Had Nine Tornados With A Billion In Damage; Oklahoma Is At Number 3!

 

 

The statistics keep rolling in with the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. The F-5 storm is one of the strongest to have hit the nation. Dr. Jeff Master's says that the nation has had nine tornados that have caused a billion dollars in damage. Ironically, two of them were in Moore.

1) Joplin, Missouri, May 22, 2011, $2.9 billion

2) Tuscaloosa, Alabama, April 27, 2011, $2.3 billion (not in SPC's list)

3) Moore, Oklahoma, May 20, 2013, $2 billion

4) Topeka, Kansas, June 8, 1966, $1.8 billion

5) Lubbock, Texas, May 11, 1970, $1.5 billion

6) Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, May 3, 1999, $1.4 billion

7) Hackleburg, Alabama, April 27, 2011, $1.3 billion (not in SPC's list)

8) Xenia, Ohio, April 3, 1974, $1.1 billion

9) Omaha, Nebraska, May 6, 1975, $1 billion

PHOTOJOURNALISM: Incredible Photographs From Oklahoma

 

 

As always, brave photojournalist act as our eyes into the world. Dozens of extraordinary photographs are on Boston.com's Big Picture of the Oklahoma tornado disaster. This site carries the works of the best photojournalist in the business. The photograph above is an American Gothic for disasters.  Some of the works below find beauty in the middle of devastation.  Here are some of their best work.

YOU CAN SEE MORE, GET THE ALL IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHER CREDITS AND DESCRIPTIONS BY CLICKING HERE>>>>>

PHOTOJOURNALISM: The Horror Of Oklahoma Shown Through Photography

 

 

 

There really isn't much anyone can say anymore about the horror. As always, hard working photojournalists have captured this moment as a nation mourns and rallies to help its neighbors in Oklahoma. Click here for more photographs and photographer credits.

VIDEO: Joyful Moment Amid The Devastation As Elderly Woman Finds Her Dog

 

 

A CBS reporter was interviewing an elderly lady who lives alone with her dog. The tornado tore the dog out of her hands and she thought she had lost him for ever. This is a moving tape in the mist of utter devastation.

Terrifying NEW Video Of Oklahoma Tornado; Over 50 Dead

 

 

Plaza Tower Elementary School

Thousands of homes have been totally destroyed and the death toll has risen to over 50 people including some children at an elementary school. The tornado by size, distance and destructive power is one of the worst to hit the United States. Above is the picture of the Plaza Towers elementary school.

VIDEO: Two Videos Of Mile Wide, F-4 Oklahoma Tornado

 

 

 

The damage from this mile wide monster tornado is massive. Some long time observers describe it as the worse they have seen. Here is the first clear video of the tornado. It was hard to get clear shots because it was so massive and rain-wrapped.

Warning in second video you can hear people cry for help.  Just click on the second one to start it.

VIDEO: Very Dramatic Footage Taken Just After Connecticut Train Crash (Strong Language)

 

This is dramatic video that was taken moments after the two trains crashed in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It appeared on GAWKER.  Over sixty people were injured and no one was killed. Be warned there is very tough language in this video as excited bystanders express shock.

Another Horrible Hurricane Forecast And Warning For East Coast

 

 

AccuWeather.com has issued their hurricane forecast for the upcoming hurricane season that starts officially on June 1st. Actually it is possible we could have our first tropical storm the last week of May.

The news is not good news especially for the East Coast still reeling from Hurricane Sandy!

Here is their forecast in full:

After a devastating blow to the East from Superstorm Sandy in October of 2012, residents and homeowners on the Atlantic coast should anticipate another active season in 2013.

AccuWeather.com's long-range team predicts 16 named tropical storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. Of these, three are predicted to make landfall in the United States.

Atlantic Hurricane Season Key Points:

1. The season may begin quickly this year with development in the Caribbean in June.
2. AccuWeather.com is predicting strong storms this year with a strength of category 2 or higher.
3. Areas along the East coast to the Gulf of Mexico are at risk for impacts from a tropical system.

Warm water across the Atlantic and Caribbean, paired with less frequent wind shear, may result in an above-normal number of storms. The normal number of named tropical storms in a given year is 12, according to NOAA.

Additionally, 2013 could set the stage for stronger storms than were seen in 2012.

Episodes of Saharan dust, a factor that can stifle a storm's development, may be less frequent this season. The reduced amount of dust may allow storms with a strength of category 2 or higher to develop.

The season is predicted to be normal in development, compared to last year when two storms were named before the official start of Atlantic hurricane season, June 1.

Should storms brew early in the season, from late May to early June, the season total for storms may be even higher than originally forecast.

Last year's early storms were an "anomaly," AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said. "We think that this year will be more in line with a typical active season."

The biggest concerns for the upcoming season include development in the Gulf of Mexico, an impact in Florida and also another East Coast impact.

Florida is long overdue for a direct hurricane hit, Kottlowski said. Though they have been impacted by named tropical storms in the last couple of years, a direct hit by a hurricane has not occurred since Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

Concern is high for the East because of the remaining devastation as a result of the October 2012 landfall of Superstorm Sandy.

"It would be very difficult for a storm to hit right where Sandy hit," Kottlowski said. However, impacts such as storm surge, strong winds and heavy rain are possible as far as a few hundred miles from a storm, he explained.

The areas impacted by Sandy remain vulnerable as powerful storm surge wreaked havoc on the dune systems that were in place along the coast. Without dunes, there is increased potential for severe inland flooding.

Overall, however, the exact areas to be directly impacted this season and the severity of those impacts remain unclear.

"Those are very, very difficult to compute early in the season," Kottlowski said. "As we get into the season and see how things are setting up, then it becomes a little bit more noticeable

PHOTOJOURNALISM: LIFE Magazine's Coverage Of Waco, Texas Tornado (1953)

 

 

Sixty years ago this week one of the worse tornado's ever to hit an urban area hit Waco, Texas. By the end of the rampage 114 people were killed which makes it one of the twenty worse tornado's every to hit the United States.

LIFE Magazine reported:

Today, six decades later, the 1953 Waco tornado remains tied with the 1902 Goliad twister for the grim distinction of Texas’s deadliest, and is the 11th deadliest in U.S. history.

In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, LIFE’s John Dominis and correspondent Scot Leavitt, who had just recently moved to Texas, made their way to the devastated city. All of the photos in this gallery, many of which never ran in LIFE, are Dominis’s; in a note sent to LIFE’s editors in New York, Leavitt noted that “through virtually all [of Dominis's] shooting, rain fell, the sky was dark and the mood was somber.”