Category Archives: politics and science

politics and science, volcanoes

Mount Redoubt: 1, Politics: 0

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Why We Monitor Volcanoes

Mount Redoubts top vent emitting a cloud of steam, prior to an ash eruption overnight. Image courtesy AVO/USGS and Cyrus Read. Click to embiggen.
Mount Redoubt's top vent emitting a cloud of steam, prior to an ash eruption overnight. Image courtesy AVO/USGS and Cyrus Read. Click to embiggen.

From the National Weather Service in Anchorage, AK:

..ASHFALL ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 AM AKDT THIS MORNING...

THE ASHFALL ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 AM AKDT THIS
MORNING. 

REDOUBT VOLCANO AT 60.5N 152.7W HAS ERUPTED SEVERAL TIMES DURING
THE NIGHT. LIGHT ASHFALL HAS ALREADY BEEN REPORTED AT SKWENTNA.
LIGHT ASHFALL IS POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE SUSITNA VALLEY THIS
MORNING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

AN ASHFALL ADVISORY MEANS THAT ASH WILL BE DEPOSITED IN THE
ADVISORY AREA. PEOPLE IN AREAS OF ASHFALL SHOULD SEAL WINDOWS AND
DOORS. PROTECT ELECTRONICS AND COVER AIR INTAKES AND OPEN WATER
SUPPLIES. MINIMIZE DRIVING. LISTEN TO YOUR RADIO STATION FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION.

Seeing the images (like the one above) from Mount Redoubt (aka “Jindal’s Bane”) in Alaska from two days ago, I am reminded of comments about volcano monitoring made by GOP Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal earlier this year. For political reasons (as opposed to sensible ones) he felt that we shouldn’t be spending taxpayer dollars on volcano monitoring (as opposed to, oh, I dunno, taxpayer bailouts of senators whose homes were damaged by hurricane Katrina while thousands of ordinary citizens were left to fend for themselves).

Mr. Jindal (who once studied biology, but has worked tirelessly to bring offshore drilling to sensitive environments on the U.S. continental shelf, believes in intelligent design, and has experience in faith healing and exorcism) sorta kinda picked on the wrong force of nature to complain about for federal funding — since government spending on such things as volcano monitoring, earthquake monitoring and oh, yeah — wait for it… hurricane tracking — benefits a lot of people and pretty much saves lives in the process. But, he probably picked on volcanos because there are volcanoes in Hawai’i (which is where our president (a Democrat hails from)) and thought it might play well to his “base” in Louisiana (where, as far as I know a volcano hasn’t erupted ever).

Except that, as I said, he kinda picked on the wrong thing. Volcanoes affect more than the places they erupt all over. A big-enough volcanic eruption can dump a lot of material into the atmosphere — “natural” pollution, if you want to think of it that way. That does affect the entire planet.

Volcanic regions on planets provide more than just ashfall; they repave the surface with  lava and affect groundwater supplies. Scientifically, they give us insight into what’s happening deep beneath the surface of the planet. THAT is valid knowledge to pay for — and I’m glad that we do.  I would imagine that the redoubtable Sarah Palin (late of failed GOP presidential politics) is probably glad that we monitor volcanoes, too, since as governor of Alaska (a state that takes in more federal funding than it pays out in taxes), she’ll have to deal with the aftermath of the eruption (probably by applying for federal disaster relief funds and asking for even MORE monitoring).  Delicious irony abounds.

Anyway, back to the science part of this entry. Alaska’s Mount Redoubt is one of 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields that exist in the region. They’ve been pumping out stuff for the past 2 million years, with 50 of those bad boys active in historical times (since about the mid 1700s).  Redoubt began erupting overnight last night after weeks of increasingly strong seismic motions and visible warnings, like the image here. As of this morning, people downwind of the volcano are being blanketed with ash and warned to stay inside and protect their health and their electronics.  Aircraft are warned away from the area (you do NOT want volcanic ash anywhere near your engines, folks),and I would imagine that ships are staying away as well.

This is the sort of warning that volcano monitoring supplies for the people who live close to (and sometimes not so close to) volcanoes. People have known for days that this volcano is going to do something. They could prepare. Just like folks in the paths of hurricanes can prepare (as best they can) and evacuate (provided they have a way to do so).  I imagine the folks who live all along the Cook Inlet appreciate it, too.

Want to do a little volcano monitoring of your own?  Check out the Alaska Volcano Observatory page for the latest information on Redoubt. The Hawaii Volcano Page gives you real-time updates on the activity on the Big Island, and you can watch Mt. St. Helens live at this page. There is a great list of volcano cams from around the world here. The Smithsonian Institution and Harvard Sensor Networks Lab each have interesting pages about monitoring volcanoes, and the Yellowstone Park monitoring page gives info on the “supervolcano” region that the park lies in.

Monitoring volcanoes saves lives and technology. It teaches us about our planet. It’s science, and all the witch doctoring in the world isn’t going to help us understand Earth — but studying volcanoes (among other things) will.  And, I don’t know of any politician who would publicly admit that saving lives isn’t important. So, for this round, it’s Volcano: 1, Partisan politics): 0.

Opinion, politics, politics and science

GOP Neutron Stars

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as a Metaphor for Density?  Stupidity?  Both?

This one’s too good to pass up.   I’m gonna have to go political on ya here.  I don’t do it too often, so if you’re looking for science, come back for the next entry, where I’ll be talking about some really deep cosmic stuff. If you don’t mind a bit of politics with your science, read on.

Okay, ready?

This week, GOP something-or-other hopeful,  former exorcist and current governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal gave one of the worst political speeches it has ever been America’s privilege to have heard. If he had any good points, they were lost in a sea of inadequacy and mistaken understanding of what’s really happening in this country. I expected better from him. Instead, we got dross.

I won’t go into great detail here, but it was funny/sad to hear him go after science the way he did. I suppose this is to be expected from a GOP hopeful who has to appeal to some imaginary voting base that thinks that science is icky and shouldn’t be funded (unless of course the science is being done in their home states).  I’m finding the whole uproar pretty funny, but if I were a GOP strategist with any brains, I’d be heading for the exits whenever this guy opens his mouth.

Well, it wasn’t long before science  blogs began picking up on Jindal’s anti-science rant against (among other things) volcano monitoring. I suspect that somebody on his staff saw that and thought it would be a good thing to rant against, since there aren’t any volcanoes in Lousiana.  There are, however, a lot of hurricanes that hit Lousiana, and the state is still struggling with the effects of them.  I wonder what Jindal would do if a fellow GOPper started ranting against all the money we’re spending on weather predictions and understanding how our climate works? Funny how he didn’t mention that…

Anyway, one of the blogs I read– called Weird Things– headlined its story on Jindal’s Rant “the GOP’s Rising Neutron Star.” It’s a funny read and makes entirely justifiable fun of Jindal’s words (and his other “accomplishments” in the world of science education in Louisiana). (Note: this is a great site to read — some posts are more “adult” than others  — and they ARE all thought-provoking and honest.)

Yeah, sure the neutron star monicker is a geek joke. But it’s a good one and a great pun besides. How so? Well, let’s look at what neutron stars are and how the description might be applicable to this specific person and his political party’s continually evolving (pun intended) stance on science.

Neutron stars are incredibly dense remnants of formerly bloated, massive stars that collapsed in on themselves in supernova events after belching out much of their outer atmosphere to surrounding space.  The material at the heart of these objects is a sort of degenerate gas, which means that it’s incredibly denser than anything in the universe (outside of a black hole).

Does that sort of fit with what’s going on out there with a political group that has lost its way? Yeah, it does.

We have incredibly dense ideas belching out from a bloated, massive group of politicians who are losing their mass. Their party is in a state of slow, but inexorable collapse under its own weight of missed opportunities, misleading opinion, and out-and-out political chicanery over the past 8-10 years.  They’ve become this sort of strange degenerate lump of matter that occasionally belches out these odd blasts against science.

Jindal’s not the only GOP neutron star out there. Former presidential candidate and science maladept John McCain is on the science warpath again. This time, instead of yelling about overhead projectors that he thinks are what planetarium projectors are, McCain is going after the ‘Imiloa Science Center earmark in the federal budget.  (Now, the issue of earmarks could be the subject of a separate discussion here, so if you’re going to yell at me in comments about that, don’t. That’s not where I’m going with this and I happen to think that all these things should be in the regular budget, but that’s beside the point here. )

McCain doesn’t like astronomy, does he?  Interesting, since he lives in and represents a state that gets quite a bit of money from the government for astronomy observatories.  (In fact, Arizona is one of a bunch of states (including Alaska and Louisiana) who get MORE federal tax money than they pay out.  Interesting, that.)

Perhaps McCain’s mad because Flandrau Planetarium in Tucson is closing down.  Who knows?  He’s found a good rant and he’s stickin’ with it.  And, I see that Jindal is sticking with his “anti-volcano” stance, too.  Fine. Let ’em.  We’ll remember it the next time he bellies up to the science funding trough for some hurricane study money. And, when John McCain yells about planetarium pork or whatever’s on his plate for the day, we can remind him that there’s a perfectly fine planetarium in Arizona that could also use an earmark or two. (You can also read about Flandrau’s budget cuts and closure here.)

When it comes to science and science education, the U.S. needs to be revamping its efforts, putting more resources into those very subjects that have been the source of so much of our wealth over the years.  I don’t think any reasonable person would say that science funding hurts the country.  What’s hurting our country now is NOT the money being sent for research and development and education. And these clowns who yell about science know that. They’re just grandstanding for an increasingly shrinking, but frightened base of voters and lobbyists.  No doubt when the money comes down the sluice, they’ll take it but keep pointing their voters to the shininess of their Fools’ Gold-type anti-science rants.  That’s degenerate.