Devastation linked to global warming

[JoFerret]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1302849,00.html

Scientists are claiming that the unprecedented ferocity and frequency of the hurricanes that have battered the Caribbean this year can be blamed on one factor: the unexpectedly warm water that has been building up in the Atlantic over the past year.
But some leading US meteorologists reject the idea that this heating is in turn directly linked to global warming. The real villain is the great ocean conveyor belt that ferries warm water from the Equator to the poles, they say. Man-made climate change is a peripheral issue.

Every two or three decades, the conveyor belt picks up speed, scientists have discovered, and in doing so warms tropical waters. In turn, this heating alters atmospheric conditions around Africa, the origin of many major storm fronts. Greater storms are created and more make it to hurricane force.

According to Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, sea surface temperatures are now 5C higher than recent averages and these have been directly responsible for spawning Hurricanes Ivan, Frances and Charley this summer.

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[AntiFascist]

1. Man-made global warming worse than expected?

Right before Ivan became news, there was a news story floating around the media about how global warming, caused by human activity, was predicted to be much worse than previously expected, causing temperatures to rise by 12? degress within the next decade or two? Whatever happened to this story? Was it too inflammatory for someone's political campaign?

[HopeIsNowHere]

2. Is this the same reason the last three big ones hit the SE USA decades ago

Or is this a new reason?

[fearnobush]

3. No it's really God's punishment to Florida for stealing the 2000 election.

No offense good God fearing Floridians, but God is now telling you and giving you a sign that Bush really is evil and must go.

[JoFerret]

5. Read the article

.

[oasis]

7. Helping with the mulch pile is a step in the right direction. Thanks.

[Piperay]

9. Provide a link for

the three big ones you are talking about, not everyone lives in the SE.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Nine degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal

Um...that's a problem, right?

This is what happens when you have a President who doesn't believe in evolution or any other pesky scientific theories...

[Kool Kitty]

6. Sounds like a big problem to me.

Here's hoping that we get a President that believes scientists and consults with his advisers, not his heavenly father.

[Eloriel]

8. Hmph. Finally.

I was wondering why there wasn't any mention of this, but there WAS mention (pre-emptively, so to speak) of this periodic "cycle" of 40 years (or, in this article, "every two or three decades" -- you'd think they'd know exactly how long if it's such an oBVIOUS cycle, wouldn't you?).

Thanks for posting.

[Arianrhod]

10. Weather cycles are hard to pinpoint.

There are far too many factors involved to get them down precisely. One of the cycles we do know about, in approximation of course, is the periodic heating up and subsequent shutting down of the Gulf Stream. This cycle always results in an Ice Age of indeterminate length. The last one ran for 150 years, ending in the early 19th Century. The one previous to that ended 8000 years ago, and before that, about 15-20,000 years (the period we actually think of as a "real" Ice Age). What makes me think that human activity has something to do with the period we're in now, is 1) it is an incredibly and unprecedentedly short cycle, about 150 years; and 2) this short cycle corresponds to the Industrial Revolution. Scientists have been saying for decades that all the factors feeding the previous Ice cycles have been augmented and accelerated by industrial civilization.

We may not be causing global warming, but we most certainly are contributing to it.

[struggle4progress]

11. kick for enemies of science controlling US science policy

:kick: