Hurricanes, Fisheries, Maps, Oh My!

Hurricane Dean Lingers
Hurricane Dean passed by Dominica packing 100 mph+ winds and torrential rain in the middle of last August. The island suffered extensive damage as did many other island nations in the Caribbean and Mexico. Initial impact assessments pegged a nearly total loss of the seasons banana crop and severe impacts in other areas of the economy such as tourism. The IMF tallied the damage on the island at around 20% of GDP.

Initial reports of the long term impacts of Dean are starting percolating in and the reports are not promising. The AP reports that "Agricultural exports plunged 18 percent in the first three quarters of 2007 over the year–ago period" and growth on the island has slowed to a crawl, down to a projected 1% compared to the 4% of the previous year. Why are these numbers important and concerning? Besides the obvious, these reports could (crossing fingers) lead the government, under pressure from the people, to open up a flood of poor decisions that will hurt the island worse in the long run.

There is the big issue of the refinery, but in an effort to secure cash for the country to stimulate recovery, Dominica could align itself with more questionable entities thus draping the noose around its own neck. Its a tough spot to be in and the concerns of the people must be met, but I hope short term solutions do not destroy long term prosperity for the wonderful people of Dominica. PM Skerritt will give his State of the Union type speech this weekend, hopefully some of the Dominica blogs will post what he brings to the table, hopefully promising news is on the horizon.

...Not a Drop to Drink
A few weeks back an interesting map caught my eye about the impacts of humans on the worlds oceans. The researchers for this project found that only 4% of the worlds oceans has "very low" impacts. On the flip side, nearly 40% of the worlds oceans have "very high impacts." The coasts of China, North Sea, the South, and East China Seas are concentrated areas of high impact as well as the coastal area of Europe, North America, the Caribbean. The poles, not surprisingly, show the least measurable impact as well as some of the tropical Pacific.

A combination of various data sets were used to examine the human impact on the ocean. These include fishing and shipping lanes, oil and gas drilling and exploration and pollution. If you have Google Earth, be sure to get the KML (warning, link will download KML) and play around with the image. For me, the most striking impacts were how clearly some of the shipping lanes stand out. The stark realization at how much stuff is shipped and where most of it is getting shipped (the US :-( ) shows how one country can influence the impacts of the whole ocean.
Cheers!