The Convenient Scapegoat
Hurricane Katrina Flood damage in New Orleans, LA. Image courtesy NOAA.
Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post wrote an excellent article Sunday about how global warming is being overblamed in regards to specific natural disasters. From what I see, a lot of this is being created by a thirsty, big headline seeking news media. Some global warming advocates are also guilty of this rush to judgement.
I am not saying that global warming is completely off the hook when it comes to some of these particular disasters, but there is just not nearly enough information (data) out there to link the two with certainty. Far from from it, at this early point in time. Ten, twenty, a hundred years from now maybe that will change, but who knows.
Achenbach uses the Katrina and Iowa floods as prime examples of the quick-to-blame global warming rational. (Read the article here)
Kerry Emanual, a climatologist from MIT and a subject of at least one of my previous blogs was quoted in the article, stating "Global warming increases the probability of floods and strong hurricanes and that is all you can say." Makes sense to me.
Achenbach seems to zero in on the rapid growth of human population as the main culprit to many of these disasters. What do you think?
Also, Ken Clark, our western forecast expert, who also regularly blogs here at AccuWeather.com voices his opinion on a new plastic bag bill in California. You can read it here.
