Oh Bobby Jindal, how much joy and entertainment you've given us recently. I'm referring most specifically to the address in which you tried to criticize President Obama's economic stimulus by pointing out what you felt was unnecessary and wasteful about it.
Admirably, Bobby Jindal did not end up taking cues from fellow Republicans who just plain, well, made shit up. (See maglev train to the Bunny Ranch and the San Francisco marsh mouse.)
No, instead, he chose to attack a legitimate part of the stimulus that he apparently felt was a waste of taxpayer money: "something called 'volcano monitoring.'" Unfortunately for him, that plan literally... well, take your pick: blew up, went up in smoke, whatever, when Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted last month.
Fortunately for Alaskans, "something called 'volcano monitoring'" alerted them months in advance about this pending eruption.
This diary is prompted by news today that the US Department of the Interior is going to be spending some of its first stimulus monies on volcano monitoring. As reported by the NY Times:
Weeks after Mount Redoubt erupted in Alaska, the Interior Department is spending some of its first stimulus money to improve volcano monitoring. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department would use $15.2 million to modernize volcano warning systems. Mr. Salazar said the monitoring would do a better job of warning the public and airlines of eruptions, as it did months before Mount Redoubt blew in March. The Alaska Volcano Observatory first started issuing warnings in late January, he said.
From a Department of the Interior Press Release, this is how that money will be spent:
$15.2 million to modernize equipment in the National Volcano Early Warning System (NVEWS) at all USGS volcano observatories. The U.S. and its territories include some of the most volcanically-active regions in the world, with 169 active volcanoes. As many as 54 of these potentially dangerous volcanoes need improved monitoring.
Alright, well now we have a better name for the volcano monitoring system than what Jindal called it. So what is the National Volcano Early Warning System all about? Well, let's refer to the fact sheet (pdf) for more details:
Waiting until unrest escalates at a volcano then reacting to improve sparse monitoring arrays results in the loss of precious time and data as scientists, civil authorities, citizens, and businesses play "catch up" with a dangerous force of nature. NVEWS is a proposal to address monitoring needs at potentially dangerous volcanoes that have inadequate ground-based monitoring or none at all and to move beyond a reactive approach to mitigating volcanic risk. The most hazardous volcanoes would be properly monitored well in advance of the onset of activity, making it possible for scientists to improve the timeliness and accuracy of hazard forecasts and for citizens to take proper and timely action to reduce risk.
The first step in developing NVEWS was a systematic assessment of (1) threats posed by U.S. volcanoes to human life and enterprise, (2) current monitoring capabilities at each volcano, and (3) improvements necessary to fill the worst monitoring gaps. The NVEWS assessment, published in 2005, shows that a few volcanoes are relatively well monitored with telemetered instrument arrays of various types. Many other volcanoes are monitored primarily by a network of sparsely distributed seismic instruments that lack the sensitivity to detect the subtle earthquakes that commonly characterize the earliest stages of unrest. Some hazardous volcanoes have no ground-based monitoring whatsoever. (Emphasis added)
Yikes. So there are a lot of volcanoes that could erupt and are not being monitored? Well, let's take a look:
So of the volcanoes that the USGS (United States Geological Survey) considers a "very high threat," a full 50% of them have "limited" or "minimal" monitoring. And only a small percentage are "well monitored."
The volcanoes pose a threat to Alaska and much of the Western United States.
The highest priority volcanoes are these:
So as you can see, there are a lot of volcanoes that pose big threats to vast swaths of this country. The NVEWS is trying to help ensure more volcanoes are monitored with a wide-ranging multi-pronged approach.
And we're not dealing with highly experimental untested science here or anything. In fact, scientists have devised a very specific way of calculating the threat posed by a volcano at any given time.
Volcano monitoring in the past has proven itself very effective. Early monitoring systems detected seismic activity in Mount Redoubt as early as January, a full two months before the volcano erupted. Fortunately, monitoring systems were in place at this particular volcano. But as the data above shows, the same cannot be said for a lot of other high-threat volcanoes.
The announcement by the Department of the Interior that they will be spending some of their first stimulus money on expanding the NVEWS system is definitely good news and will be going toward a proven, effective way to save lives by predicting potentially devastating natural disasters.
If the GOP wants to attack this system, they can go right ahead. It won't be a winning issue for them.