granted it is too complex to prove the connection, but simple common sense says the odds are that there is a connection between hurricane strength and global warming.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/2251253642Global Warming, Hurricane Connection
September 1, 2005 10:07 p.m. EST
Andrea Moore - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A prominant study indicates hurricanes have become significantly stronger in the last several decades that global average temperatures have increased. The study gives the debate over global warming new signifance.
Climatologist Kerry Emanuel reports in the journal Nature major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and pacific have increased in duration and intensity by about 50-percent since the 1970's. During that period, global average temperatures have risien along with increases in the level of carbon dioxide and other heat-producing pollutants.
Hurricanes must have huge pools of warm water at the surface of the ocean to grow for several days. As trade winds spin the storm, it pulls more heat from the ocean and uses it as fuel.
The past ten years have been the most active hurricane season on record.
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=659360King: Global warming may be to blame for Katrina
By Andrew Buncombe
31 August 2005
Sir David King, the British Government's chief scientific adviser, has warned that global warming may be responsible for the devastation reaped by Hurricane Katrina.
"The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming," Professor King told Channel 4 News yesterday. "We have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade.
"So it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming."
Professor Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also claimed, less than a month ago, that ocean surfaces had become warmer, which doubled the destructive potential of tropical storms in the past 30 years.
..more..
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AND then we have just one of a hundred instances of the Bush gang undermining efforts to address Global warming:
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=249470&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/Republicans accused of witch-hunt against scientists 30 August 2005 12:34
Some of the United States's leading scientists have accused Republican politicians of intimidating climate-change experts by placing them under unprecedented scrutiny.
A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairperson of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published.
Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairperson opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change.
He is using the wide powers of his committee to force the scientists to produce great quantities of material after alleging flaws and lack of transparency in their research. He is working with Ed Whitfield, the chairperson of the sub-committee on oversight and investigations.
..more..
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