If Storms Hit the East Coast This Year Will Global Warming

[leftyladyfrommo]

finally be recognized as a real threat?

I read two interesting things this morning. One was that the oceans all over are warming so this is causing worse storms - they may actually have to come up with a category 6 (winds over 185 mph).

And the way the season is setting up it could be NY that gets hit - and other areas along the east coast (including the Hamptons which got hit last in 1930's).

I'm figuring if the Hamptons get flattened maybe the powers that be will start to take notice.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Global warming is recognized as a real threat.

Does who have financial interests in denying global warming will continue to deny it. And those who are stupid and support those who have financial interests in denying global warming will continue to support those who deny global warming.

[Rainscents]

2. If you think this year is going to be bad...

You should see what next year will bring. This Global warming is very serious issue and the way media is treating this "No Big Deal" Everyone, nothing to see, move a long.

[TheFriedPiper]

3. no, it will be seen as "god's" revenge

for whatever they think is irritating "god" this week

it will be spun to benefit them politically

I say let the Flying Spaghetti Monster take credit for them.

[Bandit]

7. God's Revenge because Republicans have had total control

and look at the mess the USA is in. What else could God be pissed about?

[raccoon]

8. People saying things such as the New Orleans flood are

God's revenge because the city was sinful--That sort of stupidity annoys me to no end.

If there were a God that operated that way, looks like Las Vegas would be higher up on His hit list than New Orleans. :sarcasm:

[Mr_Spock]

4. We've had several storms get up as high as Boston in past years

It's all in the severity and if we see sustained higher activity for several years consecutively. There have been bad times in the past - we will not know based just on this season, though if we have a really bad season it will become a political issue whether it is a real long-term phenomenon or not. I think we are seeing the beginnings of the effects of global warming, but I also realize how long it takes to establish a significant trend change - even a warmer earth would have periods of less storm activity.

[NanceGreggs]

5. There are going to be major storms hitting the US ...

... because Pat Robertson recently stated that God told him so.

He started his diatribe with, "If I heard the Lord right, he said ..."

You'd think that if God wanted to talk to Pat on a regular basis, he would have given him better hearing ...

[Pissed Off Cabbie]

6. One Wave Short Of A Shipwreck

Keep your eyes on Siberia. The Pandora's Box of methane is opening, and things are going to be...um...interesting from now on.

http://pissedoffcabbie.blogspot.com/2006/05/one-wave-short-of-shipwreck.html

[Igel]

9. No and yes.

One or two years of increased storm activity, esp. when the increase is as compatible with a competing (and independently needed) cycle, doesn't mean a whole lot. One problem is that nobody, IIRC, has a good model for why the cycle of weaker/stronger hurricanes is as it seems to be; another problem is that we have records for less than two cycles, and that's not a whole lot--before that a hurricane could build and die with scant observation, and even for the early part of that cycle we don't know if the records are complete. Remember, Katrina and Rita were category 5, but if you had to rely on on-shore observations they'd come in at 3 or 4 and 3, respectively. Some of the claims that storms are stronger this cycle rely crucially on knowing that in the '20s and '30s we had an accurate read of the maximum intensity of all the storms that occurred.

On the other hand, nobody seriously questions that there's been a recent increase in global temperatures; the jury was seriously out in the late '90s, as people argued over how to interpret partial data from previous decades, how to deal with varying techniques and standards for calibrating satellite sensors, and the like. These were reasonable: the onus is on those claiming warming to show that it was occurring, and to answer criticism of their claims. Much of the correlation's been cleaned up, and possible causality between actual environmental factors and the observed correlation has been posited. Models are neater and have proven retroactively right for the very recent past (while I haven't seen them subject to serious critiquing, I assume--only 'assume', mind you--that they have been).

Now it's still a question of causation, and what to do about it. There's still wriggle room, last I checked, with true believers on one side and die-hard skeptics on the other.

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. I guess the storm that hit in the 30's completely flattened the

Hamptons.

Last year there were a lot more storms than predicted. And more severe storms.

And there have been more severe storms all over the globe because the water in all the oceans is warmer.

I am hoping that we don't have tornadoes that are more severe, also. But so far the tornadoes have not been coming our way - they seem to be hitting east more than in tornado alley.

[Aiptasia]

11. Deny, deny... and deny some more...

As long as our politicians are in the back pockets of big petrochemical companies, there will be no official recognition of global warming or any toxic chemical/environmental problems.

Everything is fine. Go back to bed.

[leftyladyfrommo]

12. Well, in that case I might just have a little wine.