April 18, 2007

Tempest Toss'd

I had been under the hazy impression that part of the fallout of AlGore's Glooooooobal Waaaaarming was going to be a swarm of Category Gagillion monster killer horror hurricanes that, in a series of strikes, were going to cause the Eastern seaboard to retreat to the Alleghenies?

Well, strike that. Reverse it.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday.

The study, to be published on Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, found that climate model simulations show a "robust increase" in wind shear in the tropical Atlantic during the 21st century from global warming.

Wind shear, a difference in wind speed or direction at different altitudes, tends to tear apart tropical cyclones, preventing nascent ones from growing and already-formed hurricanes from becoming the monster storms that cause the most damage.

The effect of global warming on wind shear is similar to the impact of El Nino, the periodic eastern Pacific warm-water phenomenon that tends to put a damper on Atlantic storms. The sudden development of El Nino was credited for an unexpectedly mild Atlantic season last year, when only 10 storms formed.

Soooooo, global warming causes killer hurricanes. Except when it prevents them.

You figure it out.

YIPS from Steve: Well, I guess someone needs to get the photoshop out...

an_inconvenient_truth al gore fat.jpg
Ummmm, maybe not.

UPDATE: Fred Barnes reviews A Convenient Fiction, Stephen Hayward's short film rebuttal of AlGore's scaremongering.

Posted by Robert at April 18, 2007 08:21 AM | TrackBack
Comments

The effects on hurricanes have been a center of debate for several years. Gore honestly presented the belief at the time. IMO he overstated that point. This peripheral argument in no way negates the dangers that global warming represents. Regardless of how much you may hate Al Gore.

Posted by: LB Buddy at April 18, 2007 08:51 AM

The problem is, he chooses an image to demonstrate his central point that's factually incorrect. He bashes others for doubting because the scientific consensus is overwhelming, except when it's not. So we should believe him and radically change our lifestyles, except he's not. Okay, glad we got that straight.

Posted by: Steve the LLamabutcher at April 18, 2007 08:54 AM

Gore honestly presented the belief at the time.

When the "experts" predict that a certain cause will produce a certain effect, and that effect doesn't occur, I can only conclude one of two things:

1. The cause did not occur either;

2. The "experts" don't know what the hell they're talking about when they predict the effects.

Neither conclusion leaves me impressed with their argument.

Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 19, 2007 12:20 AM