From Inside Climate News:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making it tougher for governors to deny man-made climate change. Starting next year, the agency will approve disaster preparedness funds only for states whose governors approve hazard mitigation plans that address climate change.
This may put several Republican governors who maintain the earth isn’t warming due to human activities, or prefer to do nothing about it, into a political bind. Their position may block their states’ access to hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA funds. Over the past five years, the agency has awarded an average $1 billion a year in grants to states and territories for taking steps to mitigate the effects of disasters.
“If a state has a climate denier governor that doesn’t want to accept a plan, that would risk mitigation work not getting done because of politics,” said Becky Hammer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s water program. “The governor would be increasing the risk to citizens in that state” because of his climate beliefs.
The policy doesn’t affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood or other disaster. Specifically, beginning in March 2016, states seeking preparedness money will have to assess how climate change threatens their communities. Governors will have to sign off on hazard mitigation plans. While some states, including New York, have already started incorporating climate risks in their plans, most haven’t because FEMA’s old 2008 guidelines didn’t require it.
Full story: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18032015/fema-states-no-climate-planning-no-money
h/t to WUWT reader Susan Olsen
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Climate has always changed … naturally. The last change is that it stopped warming.
CO2 change has no significant effect on average global temperature and therefore climate sensitivity is not significantly different from zero. http://agwunveiled.blogspot.com
A forcing (such as some consider CO2 to be), or its anomaly, in Joules/sec/m/m must exist for a duration to change energy content, Joules/m/m. Thus the time-integral of the forcing, or the forcing anomaly, equals the energy change. (Energy content change divided by effective thermal capacitance = temperature change). This, using accepted assessments of paleo CO2 levels, proves that CO2 change has no significant effect on climate.
Who funds these Agenda21 schmucks? Total assets 2014: $295M
Totally Opaque: http://www.nrdc.org/about/NRDC_auditedfinancialstatements_FY2014.pdf
Page 35 makes interesting reading about this job creation scheme.
£500 Employees at £57M/annum. $114,00 a year, not bad for a legitimised life of crime against humanity.
You’d think some enterprising news rag would have mapped out the extent of the US Green Blob by now. It’s not FEMA you want to concentrate on, it’s what lies behind the green mask.
Sorry bad typing day …
500 Employees costing $57M/annum = $114K on average. Excluding ‘consultants’, ‘counsel’ and sundry hangers-on costing another $24M. Nice racket, who’s paying?
I sort of blame Florida Governor Rick Scott for some of this mess. He made something of an unwritten policy rule not to mention “climate change” within the top level of Florida’s state government, got caught out and now is hemming around about it. He could have just mustered up the political courage (ala Tony Abbott) to say, “I don’t accept the consensus on impending climate disaster, and my government will not play a part in promoting needless alarmism. Instead, we’ll prepare for occasional local flooding, a normal and natural occurrence along Florida’s populated coastlines. We oppose artificially jacking up the price of everyone’s electricity and harming our economy, to no positive effect. My administration will try to wisely direct our limited resources toward preserving Florida’s natural wetlands, waterways and coral reefs, and to improving our overall readiness for major storms.”
Yeah, typical Dim tactic. Ex-employee no one knows, ex-employee who was canned, some vague unknown contractor. Unwritten rule no one has ever seen. Amazing.
Can the liberal press describe what the difference is between a DOT road washout and a road washout caused by climate change? Perhaps the rich living on beachfronts should cough up another million in taxes to pay for roads being raised for something that has never happened and will never happen. Perhaps all their homes should be torn down
“Climate planning”. Heh. All they really mean is “nasty weather planning”. Because to them, that is what “climate change” means. Total scam. Governors who sign onto it are essentially climate prostitutes.
Just add a pledge form of beliefs to the stack of papers for impacted homeowners and farmers to apply for aid. That will get a response.
Well, let’s think about what a real plan for mitigating problems resulting from changes in climate would entail.
1) Build more power plants, for the additional air conditioning needed (for if it gets warmer).
2) Take restrictions off of fracking for natural gas, or build more pipelines if you don’ happen to have any deposits in your State (for if it gets colder).
3) Prohibit building, or at least cap the maximum insurance available, on the million dollar mansions of the wealthy elite situated on beach fronts, heavily forested deep valleys, unstable hill slopes (discouraging the likes of Al Gore, Barack Obama, etc.)
4) Prohibit the building of energy plants that are intrinsically more vulnerable to extreme weather (that means no more windmills to take damage from high winds, no more acres of solar cells or concentrating mirrors to take damage from hailstorms and tornadoes).
Of course, the “plans” that they want to see are those that require the hiring of a large number of public “servants,” wholly dependent on the Government teat (and therefore safe voters for even more government).
I wonder what FEMA’s response would be if states began submitting “mitigation plans” that included passing laws prohibiting the collection and payment of federal income taxes within their borders, and diversion of those funds to defensive military buildup in case the feds object. Since FEMA is demanding a solution to a non-existent problem, states really ought to offer a solution to the real problem.
You sound like a Novorussian trying to break away from the Poroshenko controlled Western Ukraine.
WONDERFUL!!!
Sue the FEMA for violating the separation of Church and State.
The problem is getting the plan approved if the local FEMA contacts are “true believers”. In general what happens is the State government will find some dual use activity that they can hand the global warming label on and if the FEMA rep buys it no harm no foul, you still get the same projects you intended to do anyway only they have check boxes in different columns on the spread sheet which associate them with global warming rather than some other cause.
For example sea side communities will build sea walls and elevate highways that they could have built near beach level. Same highway gets built only it is a bit higher and has a better view than the cheaper alternative. Better evacuation planning or other multi-use activities will all become hat racks for global warming by use of some creative wording.
The bad news is it will cost more money and if the FEMA rep is a true believer you will have to throw some money away on useless global warming activities to get what you really want.
It all depends on the local bureaucrats and how smart they are at working the system.
End result more money down the drain and more time wasted on conferences that solve nothing.
You are right Larry
But in addition there will also be the “planning” restrictions. NO build in this area unless that you can prove outright that future climate changes will not create a hazard or nuisance.
The no build/no growth/no use crowd will love the resulting regulations that are spawned from the planning.
There is absolutely no warming sensitivity for any IR-active gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane. The force of gravity produces a temperature gradient in a planet’s troposphere which, for an Earth with dry air, would raise the mean surface temperature to about 25°C to 28°C. But then inter-molecular radiation between water vapor molecules has a temperature leveling effect and thus reduces the surface temperature because it makes the gradient less steep, as is well known.
What is the sensitivity for each 1% of water vapor in the atmosphere?
We know that water vapor reduces the magnitude of the so-called lapse rate, which does not need a special name because it is just the temperature gradient in the troposphere. Now, we also know that radiative balance at the top of the atmosphere is virtually always close, in fact to within ±0.5%. The inward radiation is based on the so-called “Solar Constant” (although that does vary, especially due to variations in Earth’s eccentricity in a ~100,000 year cycle that regulates glacial periods) and the outward radiation (broadly speaking) increases if the whole temperature plot rises, making the area under that plot greater.
Now, what the AGW crowd want you to be gullible enough to believe is that (as the percentage of water vapor increases) the thermal plot can rise at the surface end whilst at the same time acquiring a less steep gradient. Any secondary student with a knowledge of coordinate geometry would know that the area under the new (higher and less steep) thermal plot would be far greater than that under the original plot for a world with less water vapor. So how could that happen? It can’t, because the whole plot would then fall to regain radiative balance, and in fact it would have just rotated downwards at the surface end in the first place. So how could the sensitivity for each 1% of water vapor be positive causing warming of the surface?
Political blackmail. I more reason to change course and vote for someone who just announced running for president.
Blackmail? not quite. Bribery? maybe. Coercion? We’re not quite there. Tyranny? Definitely.
“The policy doesn’t affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood or other disaster.”
Of course this is the only justification (albeit weak) for FEMA in the first place.
From the story The new federal rules don’t require public involvement in the creation of states’ disaster preparedness plans, eliminating the opportunity for environmental groups and concerned citizens to submit comments or concerns about the assessments.
This is not a true statement. It will not eliminate undue influence by ‘environmental groups’ on hazard planning, as they are already embedded in FEMA and the EPA. This is self-evident from the comment by Rebecca Hammer: “If a state has a climate denier governor that doesn’t want to accept a plan, that would risk mitigation work not getting done because of politics,” said Becky Hammer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s water program.”
The clause for state by state acknowledgement of ‘climate change’ was included as a direct result of their insider participation…. and the NRDC’s shills crafted their ‘talking points’ at the very same time.
YUPPERS!
Well, I guess they have no choice. Governors will have to start planning for longer growing seasons, better crop yields, fewer severe storms, and reduced morbidity due to subfreezing weather.
“assess” is an interesting word… I suppose if the whole “south florida becomes a new state” thing goes through I’d be fine with catastrophic global warming turning my back yard into beach-front property…
This is getting absurdly stupid.
People tell lies for a reason. The reason is Agenda 21 and global governance, global taxation, and ultimate control of everything. Climate Change is the key to achieve it. Nothing makes sense until you put the two together, then, it is blindingly obvious. If democratic control fails, control be regulation EPA, Eco Fascism.
I write these state plans…mitigation plans, preparedness plans, disaster response plans, recovery plans, exercises, models bla bla bla.
Here is the deal:
—FEMA, EPA, DHS all of them are incapable and unable to explain the different between a flood and a climate change flood.
—No one is able to describe and measure the difference between a hurricane and a climate change hurricane. As such, the planning and response would be different if such a thing existed …but they are not.
—NO ONE is able to describe and measure the risk and threat from climate change so that equal measures can be taken here and now to stop them or mitigate against them. NO ONE can provide the scope, scale frequency, historical basis, impact…. because there are none.
—Not a single one of the DC agencies and AGW groups are able to describe, dictate, direct or produce guidelines as to what the mitigation steps are for a drought versus a climate change drought.
—What are the response actions for a climate change wildfire and are those any different than a wildfire?
So, yes, sadly, to be able to comply and receive grant money taken from the taxes we have sent them, we will place a paragraph headed by a section break and a title in the index page about how AGW might or might not be the cause of one, any or none of the probabilities.
Even worse, our professional org has become tinged. It has moved away from fact and into AGW. Instead of spending time dealing with real issues, it wandered off into Max and the Thunderdome dystopias.
Funny, since so many of us have NOT been called in to respond to the massive oil spills, the five cat 4 hurricanes a year, the massive inland flooding, the entire crop losses, the Ag. biological outbreaks.
That’s ok. Americans need to yank their funding for the feds and let big O pay his $10 Trillion debt.
The land of the free? What a joke……
As near as I can determine, FEMA is a typical bloated bureaucracy whose left hand is unaware of what the head is thinking, what the right hand is doing, and where the feet are going. I’m sure FEMA does some good upon occasion, but I doubt the small successes are efficient or cost effective. I have a much better impression of the American Red Cross’ effectiveness after a disaster.
I’m wondering; in some cases, might a disaster area be better off if FEMA did not show up? We might never know because when disaster strikes, FEMA has to “do sumpthin” to justify its existence.
Waaaay up-thread somebody suggested leaving disaster prep and response to the states. I’m thinking that’s probably the better idea than Federal management.
P.S. Anybody want to buy a government surplus never-been-used trailer? Get ’em while they’re hot!
http://www.fematrailersforsale.org/fema-trailers-in-louisiana-for-sale/
I’ve kept the following in my email archives since 2011. I’m not from Texas and don’t live there. This is how it should be, until FEMA shows up. After that it’s how it too often is. This eye witness account fits this thread.
*********************************************************
Tricounty fire in Montgomery , Grimes, and
Waller County, Texas — Memorial week, 2011.
My neighbor across the road has a sister named Kenna. Memorial Day, when
she saw the huge column of smoke over our homes, she left a birthday party
at my neighbor’s house to meet with her friend Tara at the Baseball complex
in Magnolia. She called the owner of the complex and got permission to use
the warehouse there as a staging area for donations for the fire fighting
effort.
They put a notice out on facebook that they were going to be taking
donations on their facebook pages. That night as they were setting up
tables and organizing, News 2 Houston came by and saw the activity,
investigated and left with the phone numbers and a list of suggested
donations.
The facebook notice propagated faster than the fire. By dawn they had 20
volunteers, bins, forklifts, and donations were pouring in. I stopped by
with my pitiful little bags of nasal wash and eye wash, and was amazed.
There must have been 20 trucks in the lot, offloading cases of water,
pallets of Gatorade , and people lined up out the door with sacks of beef
jerky, baby wipes, underwear, socks, and you name it. School buses and
trailers from many counties around were there offloading supplies, students
forming living chains to pass stuff into the bins for transport to the
command center and staging areas. If the firefighters had requested it, it
was there. What do you give the folks out there fighting the fire that might
engulf your home? Anything he or she wants. Including chewing tobacco and
cigarettes.
Kenna moved on to the Unified Command Post at Magnolia West High school .
She looked at what the fire fighters needed, and she made calls and set it
up.
Mattress Mac donated 150 beds. Two class rooms turned into barracks kept
quiet and dark for rest. The CEO of HEB donated 2 semi trailers full of
supplies, and sent a mobile commercial kitchen at no charge to feed all the
workers, but especially our firefighters, 3 hot meals a day. An impromptu
commissary was set up, anything the firefighters had requested available at
no charge.
As exhausted firefighters (most of them from local VFDs with no training or
experience battling wildfires) and workers came into the school after long
hours of hard labor, dehydrated, hungry, covered with soot and ash, they got
what they needed. They were directed through the commissary, where they got
soap, eye wash and nasal spray, candy, clean socks and underwear, and then
were sent off to the school locker rooms for a shower. HEB then fed them a
hot meal and they got 8 hours sleep in a barracks, then another hot meal,
another pass through the commissary for supplies to carry with them out to
lines, including gloves, safety glasses, dust masks and snacks, and back
they went.
One of the imported crew from California came into Unified Command and asked
where the FEMA Powerbars and water were. He was escorted to the commissary
and started through the system. He was flabbergasted. He said FEMA never
did it like this. Kenna replied, ”Well, this is the way we do it in Texas.”
Fire fighting equipment needed repair? The auto shop at the High School ran
24/7 with local mechanics volunteering, students, and the firefighters
fixing the equipment.
Down one side of the school, the water tankers lined up at the fire hydrants
and filled with water. Down the other side there was a steady parade of
gasoline tankers filling trucks, dozers, tankers, cans, chain saws, and
vehicles.
Mind you, all of this was set up by 2 Moms, Kenna and Tara, with a staff of
20 simple volunteers, most of them women who had sons, daughters, husbands,
and friends on the fire lines. Someone always knew someone who could get
what they needed- beds, mechanics, food, space. Local people using local
connections to mobilize local resources made this happen. No government
aid. No Trained Expert.
At one point the fire was less than a mile from the school, and everyone but
hose volunteers were evacuated. The fire was turned.
The Red Cross came in, looked at what they were doing, and quietly went away
to set up a fire victim relief center nearby. They said they couldn’t do it
any better.
FEMA came in and told those volunteers and Kenna that they had to leave,
FEMA was here now. Kenna told them she worked for the firefighters, not
them. They were obnoxious, bossy, got in the way, and criticized
everything. The volunteers refused to back down and kept doing their job,
and doing it well. Next FEMA said the HEB supplies and kitchen had to go,
that was blatant commercialism. Kenna said they stayed. They stayed. FEMA
threw a wall eyed fit about chewing tobacco and cigarettes being available
in the commissary area. Kenna told them the firefighters had requested it,
and it was staying. It stayed. FEMA got very nasty and kept asking what
organization these volunteers belonged to- and all the volunteers told them
“Our community”. FEMA didn’t like that and demanded they make up a name for
themselves. One mother remarked “They got me at my boiling point!” and
suddenly the group was “212 Degrees”. FEMA’s contribution? They came in the
next day with red shirts embroidered with “212 Degrees”, insisting the
volunteers had to be identified, never realizing it was a slap in their
face. Your tax dollars at work- labeling volunteers with useless shirts and
getting in the way.
The upshot? A fire that the experts from California said would take 2-3 weeks to get under control
was 100% contained in 8 days. There was so much equipment and supplies
donated, 3 container trucks are loaded with the excess to go and set up a
similar relief center for the fire fighters in Bastrop . The local relief
agencies have asked people to stop bringing in donations of clothing, food,
household items, and pretty much everything else because they only have 60
displaced households to care for, and there is enough to supply hundreds.
Again, excess is going to be shipped to Bastrop , where there are 1500
displaced households. Wish we could send Kenna, too, but she has to go back
to her regular job.
**************************************************************
FEMA –> Federal Emergency (Mis-)Management Administration?
@Bill Murphy – March 24, 2015 at 8:13 am
Thanks for that one, Bill. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that’s how volunteer response goes most everywhere in the US.
sort of similar-
“Firestone Did What Governments Have Not: Stopped Ebola In Its Tracks”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/06/354054915/firestone-did-what-governments-have-not-stopped-ebola-in-its-tracks
Not that big of a deal. Simply use natural ‘climate’ benchmarks in any state mitigation request or assessment. Using a variety of ‘peer’ review research, utilize the large body of evidence to promote non CAGW funding for projects that are actually benificial to the community. The Stafford Act already has significant guidelines that conservative congressmen can leverage to combat the looney far left and federal bureaucRATS…..
If you want to end climate change, stop funding research that supports it. Any graphs showing federal spending on CC research VS the number of scientists that suddenly support it?
Having personally worked directly in disaster recovery (a number of times) and working under FEMA guidelines, there’s something that needs to be understood. When disaster strikes, FEMA will not be there to assist you, period. They’ll be back in DC playing arm chair quarterback with little to no situational awareness.
Seriously, if I were in a disaster survival situation, the last person I would want to show up at my door is someone from FEMA. That said, a unicorn is more likely to show up. Folklore suggests they are edible, which would be a major plus. They (FEMA, not unicorns) have a terrible history of screwing up the management of every major disaster recovery effort since their founding.
Acknowledging that unicorns don’t really exist and a FEMA assistance worker showing up to assist you falls into the same category, I recommend that develop a workable survival plan that does not rest upon the government (or anyone else) saving your butt. You’re on your own for up to several weeks. Do your own planning because FEMA sure isn’t doing it for you.
The coercion with federal funds has begun (again). Projection of madness is what this is called. Resist at the ballot box since climate change effects every election now.