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Sunday, August 28, 2005

Katrina and Global Warming

From WWLTV's great coverage:

Katrina could be strongest storm in recorded history
Mayor Ray Nagin ordered an immediate mandatory evacuation Sunday for all of New Orleans, a city sitting below sea level with 485,000 inhabitants, as Hurricane Katrina bore down with wind revved up to nearly 175 mph and a threat of a massive storm surge.

The storm had the potential for storm surge flooding of up to 25 feet, topped with even higher waves, as much as 15 inches of rain, and tornadoes, the National Hurricane Center said.

Only three Category 5 hurricanes - the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale - have hit the United States since record-keeping began. The last was 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which leveled parts of South Florida, killed 43 people and caused $31 billion in damage. The other two were the 1935 Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys and killed 600 people and Hurricane Camille, which devastated the Mississippi coast in 1969, killing 256.

Category 5's are rare, but for how long?

The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth's climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although we cannot say at present whether more or fewer hurricane will occur in the future with global warming, the hurricanes that do occur near the end of the 21st century are expected to be stronger and have significantly more intense rainfall than under present day climate conditions. This expectation is based on an anticipated enhancement of energy available to the storms due to higher tropical sea surface temperatures.

When you hear "global warming" think "George Bush". Global warming is now a national security crisis. Bush's oil buddies have endanged American soil with their corrupt refusal to deal with the consequences of their greed. Bush doesn't get it.

Posted at 01:37 PM in Culture of Corruption, International, Republicans, Scandals | Technorati

Comments

This is an interesting hypothesis, but the quoted article directly contradicts it:

"we cannot say at present whether more or fewer hurricane will occur in the future with global warming"

The article basically says hurricanes will be worse during this century, but global warming may result in more or fewer of them.

Posted by: rrgg at August 29, 2005 10:29 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

There was also a study done recently showing no increase in extreme climate events over the past x number of years. I don't remember the details exactly, but you might want to look for that.

Posted by: rrgg at August 29, 2005 10:33 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment