Atmospheric Science, the weather, and global warming

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

The people connecting last years hurricanes to global warming with any certainty were engaged in hyperbole. Very few atmospheric scientists (pretty much all of whom believe in anthrogenic global warming) were willing to make the connection and generally discounted it.

Perception is reality. I have cited here that the links between global warming and increased hurricane activity were bogus at best.

The media was certainly overplaying it, and if I recall, one of the posters for An Inconvenient Truth had a gigantic hurricane on it. The attempt by many in the media and those who are pushing for huge reform is to link two very active seasons in 2004 and 2005 to global warming.

This is why it is so hard to sort out fact from hyperbole. The sensational story of impending disaster with unstoppable causation is better than the story of a statistical anomaly.