Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Researchers link human activities to rising ocean temperatures in hurricane formation regions

New research shows that rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in hurricane "breeding grounds" of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are unlikely to be purely natural in origin. These findings complement earlier work that uncovered compelling scientific evidence of a link between warming SSTs and increases in hurricane intensity.

(Via Universe Today.)

4 comments:

Katie said...

So...how do you explain that earlier in the season that this was supposed to be the "Worst.Hurricane.Season." ever, and yet, there's hardly been a blip of a storm so far this year?

Is it really Global Warming, or just cyclical storm movements that happen every century or so?

When you figure that the last storm to hit Galveston, TX in a truly severe manner was about 100 years ago, wouldn't that give some creedence to the 100 year storm cycle?

Mac said...

Jezzie--

Global warming doesn't work like that and anyone claiming it does is either trying to derail intelligent discussion or is flaunting his own ignorance. It's not a straight linear trip from bad to worse. There are crests and troughs. But it does get worse.

GW can be tracked by a *global* average. That's why old-timers who remember killer summers way back when aren't negating the reality of climate change, even though some may think they are.

Katie said...

Don't get me wrong...I truly belive that Global Warming is happening and that in many ways it is having an affect on the Earth.

But at the same time, weather often works in cyclical means, and is it so far out of the realm to think that some of the weather anomalies that we've seen the past couple of years be as much of that cycle?

Mac said...

Could some weather-related maladies have a natural origin? Of course.

No one's claiming anthropogenic change is the only change. But there's absolutely no doubt that we're raising the planet's temperature at an appallingly rapid pace, and that's what the debate should focus on.

In many respects we're too late. We can't halt global warming in its tracks. We can't reverse it. All that's left to us at this point is damage control. But that that translates to a *lot* of saved lives and rescued ecosystems.

I have to agree with Al Gore that this is not a political issue; it's a moral issue.

Unfortunately, almost all I hear from world governments is petulant squabbling. And while The Chimp is far, far from exempt, I'm sick to death of the tendency to reduce the threat posed by climate change to partisan bickering.