Posted on 09/22/2005 7:23:53 PM PDT by Crackingham
A leading British scientist said on Friday the growing ferocity of hurricanes hitting the United States was very probably caused by global warming and criticised what he termed U.S. climate loonies over the issue. Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution which advises the government, made what the Independent newspaper said was a thinly disguised attack on the stance of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration.
"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming," Lawton told the newspaper in an interview.
"If this makes the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation," said Lawton.
Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated large areas of the U.S. Gulf coast, a new hurricane called Rita was roaring through the Gulf of Mexico towards the centre of the U.S. oil industry.
Climate change policies sharply divide Bush from many other world leaders who have signed up for caps on emissions of greenhouse gases under the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations from a first round of caps to 2012. In July this year, Bush launched a six-nation plan to combat climate change with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea focused on a shift to cleaner energy technology. Unlike Kyoto, it stops short of setting caps on emissions.
Asked what conclusion the Bush administration should draw from two powerful hurricanes hitting the United States in quick succession, Lawton said:
"If what looks like is going to be a horrible mess causes the extreme sceptics about climate change in the U.S. to reconsider their opinion, that would be an extremely valuable outcome.
"There are a group of people in various parts of the world ... who simply don't want to accept human activities can change climate and are changing the climate. I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer."
Lawton said hurricanes were getting more intense, just as computer models predicted they would, because of the rising temperature of the sea.
"Increasingly it looks like a smoking gun," he said.
"It's a fair conclusion to draw that global warming, caused to a substantial extent by people, is driving increased sea surface temperatures and increasing the violence of hurricanes."
Climate loony yank here. It's all the fault of the evil, possessed SUVs! The vengeful god Yukon Denali demands $75 to fill his coffers (that's about 40 pounds for you loony limeys).
Well, except that smoking does cause cancer.
We haven't had a North Sea storm wipe out The Netherlands in a half a century....must be something we're screwing up?
Gee, no built-in bias there.
Dr. Max Mayfield and Dr. William Gray say this increase in hurricanes has nothing to do with global warming. So am I to believe them or this Lawton fellow? I think I'll stick with the former.
I think these hurricanes are due to the British not brushing their teeth. Prove me wrong.
06 January 2005
03/05
New Year Honours
We are delighted to extend hearty congratulations to three NERC staff who have been chosen for awards in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.
NERC’s Chief Executive, Professor Sir John Lawton, CBE, FRS, has been awarded a Knighthood for his contribution to ecological science.
Sir John began his career by studying zoology at the University of Durham, completing his PhD in 1969. Since then he has held several university posts and has served on a wide range of committees and bodies. In 1989 he founded, and was appointed Director of, the NERC Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College, Silwood Park, where he remained until 1999. He took up his present post as Chief Executive of NERC in October 1999, but retains his Professorship in an honorary capacity at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.
His scientific interests are wide, but have focused on the population dynamics and biodiversity of birds and insects, with emphasis over the last decade on the impacts of global environmental change on wild plants and animals. He has published over 320 scientific papers, and written or edited five books.
Sir John says, “I’m completely taken aback, but also delighted to be honoured in this way.”
http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4403
Interview with Dr. William Gray that refutes this guy.
Loonies? It takes one to know one, as we used to say in my younger years.
If, IF, the recent upswing in hurricane intensity is caused by "global" warming, then why isn't it a "global" problem? No increased ferocity of storms reported in the other oceans around the world.
Exactly. It is not the storms but our own pathetic lack of preparation on the levee system which led to so many deaths in LA. (the Miss. deaths were mostly unavoidable). The Dutch spent billions decades ago so they could never be hurt again.
Also, this so-called scientist has nothing to say on the sharp DECREASE in hurricanes over the past 70 years...
...or did I miss his blistering criticism of FDR for global warming in 1943?
More to read by Dr. Gray on Hurricanes and Global Warming:
http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/2005/april2005/
Well said.
All I have to say is this: When you British or American Chicken Littles can tell me whether to bring an umbrella to the Masters in Augusta on Thursday sooner than the Sunday before, maybe I'll start buying your lemonade. Until then, shut up. You can't predict the weather sooner than 10 days. What makes you think you can tell me what the weather will be like in two or three years or ten. Please just admit that you guys are guessing and leave the rest of us alone!
Aliens cause Global Warming:
http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote04.html
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