Hurricane Gustav Proves That The Gulf Of Mexico Is A Microwave For Wind Storms

On Friday over at Keyboard Culture, I wrote about the short-term and long-term effects of Tropical Storm Fay. She was something else! The Kroehler household was fortunate to be spared the worst effects. In fact, since we suffered no flooding, Fay was good to us. Our lawn had been parched because the first half of August was very dry. No longer!

Well, as Gustav zeros in on New Orleans and the lower Mississippi region, the parallels with Fay, and Hurricane Katrina from 2005, are most telling. The southern Gulf of Mexico has abnormally high water temperatures and we are the cause. By dumping industrial waste, sewage and agricultural runonff into the once gorgeous body of water, we allow the worst to happen – the Gulf has become a marine petri dish.

High algal counts lead to higher temperatures and, of course, global warming doesn’t help. Without sweeping changes, this hurricane incubator just a few hundred miles from my home will be with us for decades and its effects only will worsen. Up until now, global warming has been something of an ethereal concept for skeptics. The hurricane incubator which we have built in the Gulf of Mexico is very real and easy both to see and comprehend.