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“There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
The 1930s were distinctly warm years in many parts of the world, including the Atlantic basin. Although hurricanes were not yet named and tracked to the extent they are today, meteorologists tell us that the decade saw an unusually high number of powerful storms. Among them are the Category 5 Freeport Hurricane of 1932 and the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. The latter raced up the Atlantic Coast, ultimately crashing ashore on Long Island, New York, and then again in Connecticut. The regional damage was profound:
“Wind, fire, floodwaters, and tidal surges all caused damage in New England. In New London, Connecticut, the tidal surge drove the five-masted school ship Marsala into a warehouse complex along the docks, setting off a short circuit and fire which consumed a quarter-mile area of the business district – the worst calamity in New London since Benedict Arnold burned the city in 1781. Firefighters bravely fought the fire in waters up to their necks as the storm surge and fire were driven by strong southerly gales. The fire was only brought under control with the shift of the winds to the northwest…
The Blue Hill Observatory at its 635-foot elevation in Milton, Massachusetts, just south of Boston, recorded a gust of wind out of the south at 186 mph with a sustained wind of 121 mph between 6:11 and 6:16pm. Only one anemometer survived these winds, which remain the second highest winds ever recorded on earth.”
Ahead of its time | PBS
To our younger readers, it might defy indoctrination to learn that high temperatures and hurricanes existed before the advent of global warming despite atmospheric CO2 levels that were 25% lower in the 1930s than they are now. Alas, both expressions of nature are firmly caused by global warming today, but if the West installs enough wind turbines and solar panels, the planet will cool, and hurricanes will no longer disrupt lives—or so the thinking goes.
The path of the Great New England Hurricane eighty-six years ago took the eye of its storm near Martha’s Vineyard, where one of the largest and most controversial solutions to global warming is under construction today. Known as Vineyard Wind, the project boasts of being the first commercial-scale offshore wind development in the US, a key milestone toward the Biden administration’s aggressive goal to install 30 gigawatts (GW) of wind power along the nation’s coasts by 2030. Many have doubted the feasibility of that objective, and after the catastrophic events of the past three weeks, few could blame them:
“Two weeks ago, Vineyard Wind was touting how it had grown to be the largest offshore wind farm in the country when it brought its 10th turbine online. It’s all come crashing down since. Over the weekend, one of the blades on the offshore wind energy company’s turbines broke – spilling white and green fiberglass debris into the ocean. On Thursday, a large chunk of the blade separated from the turbine and tumbled into the water.
Officials with Vineyard Wind and the turbine’s manufacturer GE Vernova are investigating how the 107-meter blade folded over, but the project’s been shut down indefinitely until federal regulators can figure out what went wrong. It’s a major setback for Vineyard Wind, which boasted its planned 62-turbine project about 14 miles south of the Island as being the ‘forever first’ commercial scale offshore wind energy project in the US.”
Debris, green in all the right ways | NBC
As our friend Robert Bryce recently noted in his excellent piece “Breaking Wind,” the disintegration of this 70-ton football-field-length blade levied incalculable damage to sensitive ecosystems, littered historic beaches with heaps of garbage, and should call into question the wisdom of the entire offshore wind concept. Occurring within the line of sight of one of the wealthiest and most environmentally progressive communities in the country, this scandal will either be the beginning of the end of the offshore farce or a tortured exercise in luxury insistence. It’s time to reassess the possibilities.
Source: Newsletter.doomberg.com
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