Beyond Biology: Can We Reconcile the Land–Water–Humankind Interface?

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Notes

¹ As a biologist I know that I will be clarified by the weather experts in a follow-up technical article sometime soon. For technical explanations you can visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Service and Hurricane Center or affiliated regional university program web pages dedicated to Sandy. One metric stands out: integrated kinetic energy. When adding up all of the total energy contained in the expansive area of tropical storm–force winds and the area of hurricane-force winds, Sandy contained the most integrated kinetic energy of any storm in history—none contained more overall sheer power in recorded history. For energy metric junkies, Sandy's peak wind energy was 329 TJ—2.7 times higher than Katrina's peak energy and the equivalent to five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.