Brace for more Katrinas, say experts (global warming)

[DemsUnite]

For all its numbing ferocity, Hurricane Katrina will not be a unique event, say scientists, who say that global warming appears to be pumping up the power of big Atlantic storms.

2005 is on track to be the worst-ever year for hurricanes, according to experts measuring ocean temperatures and trade winds -- the two big factors that breed these storms in the Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic.

Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Risk, a London-based consortium of experts, predicted that the region would see 22 tropical storms during the six-month June-November season, the most ever recorded and more than twice the average annual tally since records began in 1851.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050830/sc_afp/usweatherscience

[jean]

1. tell that to MS Gov Barbour who derailed the Kyoto Protocol and CO2

emissions control by the bush admin.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html

Bobby Kennedy reminds us of Barbour's personal impact on global warming at Huffington Post - excerpt:

As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

In March of 2001, just two days after EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman’s strong statement affirming Bush’s CO2 promise former RNC Chief Barbour responded with an urgent memo to the White House.

Barbour, who had served as RNC Chair and Bush campaign strategist, was now representing the president’s major donors from the fossil fuel industry who had enlisted him to map a Bush energy policy that would

be friendly to their interests. His credentials ensured the new administration’s attention.

The document, titled “Bush-Cheney Energy Policy & CO2,” was addressed to Vice President Cheney, whose energy task force was then gearing up, and to several high-ranking officials with strong connections to energy and automotive concerns keenly interested in the carbon dioxide issue, including Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, White House chief of staff Andy Card and legislative liaison Nick Calio. Barbour pointedly omitted the names of Whitman and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, both of whom were on record supporting CO2 caps.

Barbour’s memo chided these administration insiders for trying to address global warming which Barbour dismissed as a radical fringe issue.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Fundamentalist Conservatives are CONVINCED they know everything

Why listen?

Things like this must be the will of god, but they're certainly not retaliation for destroying medicare in his state.

Ignorance is the lack of information. Stupidity is the inability to process information or see patterns.

Greed and ugliness are the excuses of people who know they're better than other people and want to keep it that way. Of course, if they really WERE superior, they wouldn't need any laws to benefit them; they'd win by sheer brilliance. Those who want to skew laws to benefit those who are already benefiting are proving that they aren't better. Think about it.

If the market is god, then there should be no rules that help those in a good position; those people should be able to win and piss all over the inferiors at every turn. To buttress the powerful shows that the powerful don't deserve it.

Mississippi is a mess; it's proof that laissez-faire capitalism is nothing short of abuse.

Hey Bosshog, thanks for fighting the good fight! There are lots of good folks in your neck of the savannah, but what a tough row to hoe.

[raccoon]

2. Not only that, but coastal area are so built up now

and developers continue to build more and more in those areas.

Talk about "the perfect storm"...

[Uncle Joe]

3. Was there something unusual about the way Katrina developed?

Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, but the first time I noticed it was reported, it was just off the southwest coast of Florida. Prior to that hurricanes seemed to develop farther out to sea, generally east of the Caribbean. Maybe I just missed it.