Warming Linked to Stronger Hurricanes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Warming Linked to Stronger Hurricanes*
By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 1, 2007; 9:20 AM
PARIS -- Global warming has made stronger hurricanes, including those in
the Atlantic such as Katrina, an authoritative panel on climate change
has concluded for the first time, participants in the deliberations said
Thursday.
During marathon meetings in Paris, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change approved language that said an increase in hurricane and
tropical cyclone strength since 1970 "more likely than not" can be
attributed to man-made global warming, according to Leonard Fields of
Barbados and Cedric Nelom of Surinam.
In its last report in 2001, the same panel had said there was not enough
evidence to make such a conclusion.
"It is very important" that the language is so strong this time, said
Fields, whose country is on the path of many hurricanes. "Insurance
companies watch the language, too."
The panel did note that the increase in stronger storms differs in
various parts of the globe, but that the storms that strike the Americas
are global warming-influenced, according to another participant.
Fields said that the report notes that most of the changes have been
seen in the North Atlantic.
The report _ scheduled to be released Friday morning _ is also a marked
departure from a November 2006 statement by the World Meteorological
Organization, which helped found the IPPC.
The meteorological organization, after contentious debate, said it could
not link past stronger storms to global warming. The debate about
whether stronger hurricanes can be linked to global warming has been
dividing a scientific community that is otherwise largely united in
agreeing that global warming is human-made and a problem.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Kerry Emanuel, who
pioneered much of the research linking global warming to an uptick in
hurricane strength, looked at the original language in an IPCC draft and
called it "a pretty strong statement."
"I think we've seen a pretty clear signal in the Atlantic," Emanuel
said. The increase in Atlantic hurricane strength "is so beautifully
correlated with sea surface there can't be much doubt that there's a
relationship with sea surface temperature."
But U.S. National Hurricane Center scientist Christopher Landsea has
long disagreed with that premise. While he would not comment on the IPCC
decision, Landsea pointed to the meteorological organization's statement
last fall.