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The rhetorical sewage of hurricane Katrina

Melanie Phillips:

All too predictably, the horrific disaster caused by hurricane Katrina is being blamed on our old friend global warming. The British government’s chief scientist Sir David King -- the one who said global warming was a bigger threat than terrorism -- leapt instantaneously on the bandwagon. The Independent reported :

'"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."

Well no, it’s not easy if your mind is not turned by propaganda and you have any knowledge of the facts. As the Independent also reported, various climate experts think Sir David is talking balderdash:

‘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. But he said that Monday's storm "is part of a natural" cycle of powerful Atlantic storms that have struck since 1995. He told The Independent: "I don't think you can put this down to global warming."Other scientists point out that the 150-year record of Atlantic storms show there is ample precedent for hurricanes of Katrina's power. They say it is part of a natural upswing that has taken place since the mid-90s...

‘William Gray, a Colorado State University meteorologist who is considered one of the fathers of modern tropical cyclone science, said worldwide weather records were too inadequate for a thorough examination of trends. He told The Los Angeles Times: "The people who have a bias in favour of the argument that humans are making the globe warmer will push any data that suggests humans are making hurricanes worse, but it just isn't so ... These are natural cycles."

It’s worth also recapping on a scandal that I wrote about on January 17 this year, when an expert on hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons, Chris Landsea, resigned from the International Panel on Climate Change after what he said was a gross misrepresentation of scientific evidence to claim falsely that global warming was producing more hurricane activity.

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