All those who don't believe in GLOBAL WARMING raise your hand.

[lildreamer316]

*crickets chirping*
ahem...George; put your hand down; you didn't read the assignment.






ASSSHOLE.

I am just so damn pissed.So God Blessed pissed. And if I see one more poster blaming poor ppl for not leaving I will quit DU.

[ArkDem]

1. Read Up

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/30cycle.html?oref=login

Storms Vary With Cycles, Experts Say


By KENNETH CHANG
Published: August 30, 2005

Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming.

But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught "is very much natural," said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.

From 1970 to 1994, the Atlantic was relatively quiet, with no more than three major hurricanes in any year and none at all in three of those years. Cooler water in the North Atlantic strengthened wind shear, which tends to tear storms apart before they turn into hurricanes.

In 1995, hurricane patterns reverted to the active mode of the 1950's and 60's. From 1995 to 2003, 32 major hurricanes, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater, stormed across the Atlantic. It was chance, Dr. Gray said, that only three of them struck the United States at full strength.

Historically, the rate has been 1 in 3.

[Igel]

2. And even if it is related to global warming--and it may well be--

it wouldn't to be an easy task to show with 99.9% confidence that Katrina is due to it, and not just an outlier in the natural distribution of hurricane strengths.

[Eloriel]

5. Yeah, but we could also look at it this way

Global Warming is pretty much accepted fact (except among ideologues trying to use science for political ends).

We can't say (for sure) that this hurrican (or any hurricane) was CAUSED or even exacerbated by Global Warming, but we CAN say that it couldn't possibly have helped, and in all probability, esp. given the growing temps in these waters, it was indeed exacerbated by it.

[Lex]

3. People will say "What about Camille in 1969?"

Was that global warming too?

(And HEY, I believe in global warming, just playing devil's advocate.)

[wysi]

4. It's...

... not possible to link scientifically any single event with a particular cause (i.e. that particular hurricane cannot be linked scientifically to global warming). The same goes for a particularly hot summer, etc. One would need to look at an overall pattern of events over longer periods.

Other data, however, would support the global warming theory; sea temperatures and glacial melting are two examples.

[lildreamer316]

6. I believe

that of course it could be just mother nature; but I also believe that we just don't have a whole understanding of how nature works. My firm belief that it is all connected leads me to say that we somehow brought this upon ourselves; even if the earth is funcitoning "normally". If this is part of a cycle then maybe we should have seen THAT coming--maybe we were too busy thinking it was global warming?? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction............

[ArkDem]

7. I see that you have a strong belief in science.

[RedCloud]

8. One hand up here!

The more the planet heats up, the faster the ice melts in the polar regions. The faster the ice melts, the faster the salinity in key points of the ocean becomes adversely affected. Then the ocean convection belt shuts down and we enter an ice age! But at the Equator they can expect to see temperatures into the 140's with no cool undercurrents arriving. So, since I live pretty far to the north of the Equator I vote for the ice age.