[IP] more on British scientist calls US climate sceptics 'loonies'
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Robert C. Atkinson" <rca53@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 26, 2005 9:27:16 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] British scientist calls US climate sceptics 'loonies'
Sir John should check with his government's experts. From an
interview with one of the Met Office in the Times (London) on Sept. 22:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1792386,00.html
What part does global warming have to play in these hurricanes?
Although this has been an exceptional year in terms of the number of
storms, there have so far not been as many as there were in 1995,
when we had 19. There have been similarly active seasons dating back
decades. In both 1960 and 1961 there were two Category 5 storms in
the Atlantic region and in 1933 there were 21 storms.
If you discount Ophelia, which grazed the Carolinas, three hurricanes
have so far made landfall over the US this year. In 1886, records
show that there were seven.
So there is no evidence that there are more storms when looked at
globally, but what we may be seeing is an increase in the peak
intensity of the strongest ones.
Two research papers published in the past month have suggested an
increase in the number of category 4 and 5 storms. Tropical cyclone
activity is highly variable, often as a result of natural changes in
the atmosphere and ocean, so although this evidence is a start, we
are a long way from proving a connection.
David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 25, 2005 11:43:05 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] British scientist calls US climate sceptics
'loonies'
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/23/climate_loonies/
British scientist calls US climate sceptics 'loonies'
By Lucy Sherriff (lucy.sherriff at theregister.co.uk)
Published Friday 23rd September 2005 20:18 GMT
The chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution,
Sir John Lawton, has called climate change deniers in the US
"loonies", and says global warming is to blame for the
increasingly strong hurricanes being spawned in the Atlantic.
In an interview with The Independent, Lawton said that global
warming is "very likely" the cause of increasingly intense
hurricanes, in line with computer simulations.
He told the paper: "If this [the arrival of Hurricane Rita] makes
the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem,
some good will come out of a truly awful situation."
Lawton was speaking as Hurricane Rita is growing in strength in
the Gulf of Mexico and the region prepares for another battering.
NASA has closed the Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation
for the storm, and has evacuated personnel from sites damaged by
Katrina. At the Michoud Assembly Facility, a skeleton crew of just
forty remains to ride out the storm.
Meanwhile, residents of Houston are evacuating the city. Traffic
queues hundreds of kilometres long are forming as fears grow that
Houston could suffer the same kind of onslaught that caused such
devastation in New Orleans last month.
Lawton said that with two such large storms hitting the Gulf coast
in such quick succession, the Bush administration should re-
evaluate its position on climate change. He said if the "extreme
sceptics" in the US could be persuaded to change their minds, that
would be "a valuable outcome [of] a horrible mess".
[snip]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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