hurricanes and climate change
The question of hurricanes and their relationship to climate change (“global warming”) has come up a few times recently, so I’m making a few notes here:
“Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years”:http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature03906.html,
(abstract) from Nature.
“The links between hurricanes and climate change”:http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm?pageID=1529,
from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
It certainly looks like the models of cyclone strength as related to sea surface temperature are well developed and useful in predicting future trends. I personally think they provide enough support for a causal link meme, namely “these storms are getting worse because of global warming”, even if that meme gets oversimplified in transmission.
Posted by Chris in Environment on August 31st, 2005 Edit this page's grammar and spelling with Emend.
