The UN Climate Panel found that hurricanes or cyclones haven’t increased: “Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century.” In the 51 years from 1915, Florida and the Atlantic coast were hit by 19 major hurricanes. In the 51 years to 2016, just seven. In the last 11 years only two hurricanes greater than category 3 hit the continental USA — a record low since 1900. From 1915 to 1926, 12 hit. Yes, hurricane costs keep escalating, but this is not due to climate change. Rather, more and wealthier people live in harm’s way. The US population has risen 50-fold in coastal areas. The area hurricane Florence hit held fewer than 800,000 homes in 1940; there are now 11.3 million. The homes are bigger and contain expensive possessions. Adjusted for population and wealth, hurricane damage has not increased since 1900. Global weather damage as a percentage of global GDP actually fell from 1990 to 2017. The effect of global warming making storms fewer but stronger will see damage end up around 0.02% of GDP. Global warming will increase harm, but prosperity will decrease the overall impact. The Paris agreement on climate change will cost $1-2 trillion a year in lost growth for the rest of this century. It is estimated that the cuts promised until 2030 will achieve 1% of what would be needed to keep temperature rises under 2°C, while the cost would be around 10,000 times higher. That's terrible policy. We should spend far more on research and development of green energy sources to make them cheaper and more attractive than fossil fuels.
From Yahoo's Odd News: Speaking of weird climate, here's a pic of webs that spiders in a Greek coastal town have spun to trap an explosion in the population of insects on which they dine:
There's an interesting political race in a farming town in central Peru. It pits Hitler Alba against Leninn Vladimir Rodriguez. Neither is a follower of his namesake.
Yesterday I had a little fun with my tiny Bell & Howell camera shooting what's available at the floating book shop. The video is three minutes:
All business today occurred in the last half hour of operation. My thanks to the young woman who purchased Barbara Taylor Bradford's To Be the Best, and to Marsha, who bought two cook books and handed me her card in case I get anymore. She lists herself as "Image Consultant" - "Fashion, Hair, Home, Lifestyle." As I was closing shop, the middle age Latino gentleman who has been so generous rode up on his bike and cleaned out my CD's and DVD's. Gracious, amigo.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
Read Vic's Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
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