Daily Archives: March 5, 2010

Severe Weather

Rogue waves kill two on Mediterranean cruise

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This screen capture from amateur video shows one of the massive waves crashing into the cruise ship Louis Majesty.
This screen capture from amateur video shows one of the massive waves crashing into the cruise ship Louis Majesty.

Massive rogue waves struck the cruise ship Louis Majesty in the Mediterranean on Wednesday killing two and injuring more than a dozen passengers. The waves, at least 25 feet in height, broke windows and flooded cabins on the ship carrying 2,000 people.

The Louis Majesty was traveling from Barcelona to Genoa on the last day of a 10-day cruise of the western Mediterranean when the waves struck. Reports indicate that three massive waves broke windshields on the front of the ship and sent water over the decks.

Two deaths were reported as a result of the waves and both died at the scene. The victims were a 52-year-old Italian man and a 69-year-old German man from North Rhine Westphalia.

Fourteen injuries were reported, most minor and none life-threatening. Two of those had serious injuries including a 62-year-old woman who broke both of her legs.

Passenger Claude Cremex of Marseille, France told the Associated Press, “It was spectacular. A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded.”

Exactly where the accident occurred was still unclear. Most reports said the ship was sailing near the French Mediterranean port of Marseille but others placed it off the coast of Cabo de San Sebastian, Spain near Palafrugell.

Reports are that there were high winds in the area the ship was traveling through and automated buoy data indicates significant wave action at the time. A buoy operated by Meteo France in the area recorded waves to 21 feet high and winds in excess of 40 mph.

The 680 foot ship is owned and operated by Louis Cruises and had 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members on board at the time of the accident. The nearly 41,000 ton ship is “the most stylish and biggest ship in the fleet” according to Louis Cruises.

Climate Change

Climate scientists to attempt to retaliate for recent setbacks

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The debate about manmade climate change continues with a group of climate scientists now seeking to launch a PR campaign against skeptics.
The debate about manmade climate change continues with a group of climate scientists now seeking to launch a PR campaign against skeptics.

Climate science and the purveyors of the manmade climate change theory have been sent reeling backwards over the past year. Errors discovered in their data and reporting, the Climategate email scandal and the shame it brought upon them, and continued cooling of the globe have set back their efforts. Now, a group of climate scientists is working to take the offensive against skeptics.

The Washington Times reports today that a number of scientists will start a new public relations campaign in the hopes of turning back the tide. Among the efforts by the scientists are to solicit a group of them to donate $1,000 each toward purchasing an ad in the New York Times.

One of the scientists, Dr. Stephen Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University lamented the state of the debate and sought to call up fears of the hunt for communists. “I don’t want to see a repeat of McCarthyesque behavior and I’m already personally very dismayed by the horrible state of this topic, in which the political debate has almost no resemblance to the scientific debate.”

Schneider is most famous in many circles for making outrageous claims. In 1989 he told Discover magazine, “So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have.”

More recently, here on Examiner.com he told San Francisco Environmental Policy Examiner Thomas Fuller that any those who doubt the anthropogenic global warming theory would be “slaughtered in public debate.” When a number of notable scientists including Roger A. Pielke Sr. offered to debate him, Schneider quickly backpedaled.

For the complete story including to read what the infamous author of “The Population Bomb” had to say, please visit the Climate Change Examiner.