Hurricane Junk Science

The British Press can be counted on for a good laugh from time to time. Global warming, which like homelessness, started in 2001 when the Bush Administration took office, has given junk science the perfect forum to join the political debate. Mix in a couple of hurricanes and you get some great tabloid fodder.

This is global warming, says environmental chief

Super-powerful hurricanes now hitting the United States are the "smoking gun" of global warming, one of Britain's leading scientists believes.

I wonder if any of Britain’s other leading scientists might disagree.

The growing violence of storms such as Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans, and Rita, now threatening Texas, is very probably caused by climate change, said Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

I keep hearing that experiencing two class 5 hurricanes in one year is quite unusual for the United States. Then I remember that we haven’t had two class 5 hurricanes. We had one class 4 about the size of Hurricane Hugo, and one probable class 3. Many hurricanes are class 5 while in open water. But no one cares about that. It’s landfall that counts. It just so happens that the 4 hit a large city with a crummy dike system while the other looks like it may hit another metropolitan area. Sometimes you just have to chalk one up to bad luck.

In a series of outspoken comments - a thinly veiled attack on the Bush administration, Sir John hit out at neoconservatives in the US who still deny the reality of climate change.

The Queen should really screen these knights better. First Sir Mick, now this wacko. Then again, going political got him printed.

In an unusual turn of events, the BBC shows some sanity for once, blowing Sir John and the rampaging hurricanes theory out of the water.

Hurricanes and global warming - a link?

In the polarised world of climate change, this cocktail has proved an irresistible temptation to organisations which campaign against President Bush's administration in support of enhanced action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The latest to succumb was the British newspaper The Independent, which screamed on its front page: "This is global warming", above an alarmingly portentous graphic of Hurricane Rita's projected path.

This article has some nice graphs that you should check out regarding trends involving hurricanes in the Atlantic. (I can’t believe I am stumping for the BBC.) The verdict? Hung jury. The Independent article and Sir John’s comments are sour grapes over the worthless Kyoto accords that Bush blew off. Those accords were the silly rules that would have limited growth in the United States while allowing China and India to emit as much CO2 as they please in their bid to catch the United States economically. China, remember, pumps those profits largely back into their military which is being expanded at a great rate to one day face down the United States in the Pacific.

Here is a bit more from the BBC article:

"Based on recent research, the consensus view is that we don't expect global warming to make a difference to the frequency of hurricanes," explains Julian Heming, from the UK Meteorological Office.

"Activity is naturally very variable in terms of frequency, intensity and regional occurrence; in the Atlantic, there are active phases and not so active phases, and currently we're in the middle of an active phase.

"It's very dangerous to explain Rita or Katrina through global warming, because we have always had strong hurricanes in the USA - the strongest one on record dates back to 1935."

Records from the 20th Century suggest that hurricane formation over the Atlantic has changed phase every few decades: the 1940s and 50s were active, the 70s and 80s less so, while the currently active phase appears to have commenced in 1995.

Read both articles if you have the time. It is enlightening, not just on hurricanes, but it exemplifies the extent to which the left wing media is willing to go to paint Bush with blame for every bad thing that happens in the world. And don’t think it’s just a British phenomenon.

The ChiComms are on board. Fathom that.

Hurricanes become stronger as global warming worsens

Some of our own left wing loons have taken up the cause as well.

Studies suggest storms linked to global warming

I concede that it is certainly possible that not only does global warming exist, but that it may have an effect on weather patterns, including hurricanes. But the blathering coming from the press on the issue these days is enough to make even an amateur observer such as myself quite skeptical of anything ‘experts’, ‘studies’ or the media have to say about it.

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