[Mb-civic] Severe Hurricanes Increasing, Study Finds - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Severe Hurricanes Increasing, Study Finds

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 16, 2005; Page A13

A new study concludes that rising sea temperatures have been accompanied 
by a significant global increase in the most destructive hurricanes, 
adding fuel to an international debate over whether global warming 
contributed to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

The study, published today in the journal Science, is the second in six 
weeks to draw this conclusion, but other climatologists dispute the 
findings and argue that a recent spate of severe storms reflects nothing 
more than normal weather variability.
Katrina's destructiveness has given a sharp new edge to the ongoing 
debate over whether the United States should do more to curb greenhouse 
gas emissions linked to global warming. Domestic and European critics 
have pointed to Katrina as a reason to take action, while skeptics say 
climate activists are capitalizing on a national disaster to further 
their own agenda.

According to data gathered by researchers at the School of Earth and 
Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech and the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research, the number of major Category 4 and 5 hurricanes 
worldwide has nearly doubled over the past 35 years, even though the 
total number of hurricanes, including weaker ones, has dropped since the 
1990s. Katrina was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/15/AR2005091502234.html?referrer=email
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