
 |
|
Dec. 4, 2008
Michael Freund: France vs. the Jewish right to reproduce
Frida Ghitis:
Heed the security lessons of deadly siege
Dec. 3, 2008
Steven Emerson: Yes, the terrorists are winning
Don Terry: Lifetime, no see
Dec. 2, 2008
Melanie Phillips: The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared world
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Strategic Motivations for the Mumbai Attack
Dec. 1, 2008
Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings
Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?
Nov. 28, 2008
Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be
Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?
Nov. 26, 2008
Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership
Andrea Simantov:
Shades of life
Nov. 25, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence
The Kosher Gourmet
by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!
Nov. 24, 2008
Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'
Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends
Nov. 21, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?
Caroline B. Glick:
Civilization walks the plank
Nov. 20, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness
The Kosher Gourmet
By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto
Nov, 19, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality
Elliot B. Gertel:
'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?
Nov, 18, 2008
Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason
Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?
Nov, 17, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason
Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?
Nov, 14, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia
Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead
Nov, 13, 2008
Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic
The Kosher Gourmet
by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla
Nov, 12, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers
Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks
Nov, 11, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?
Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate
Nov, 10, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?
Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist
Nov, 7, 2008
Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality
Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy
Nov, 6, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism
The Kosher Gourmet
By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes
Nov, 5, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors
Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie
Nov, 4, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East
March 22, 2007
J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 31, 2005
/ 26 Av, 5765
Are we to blame for hurricanes?
By
Rich Lowry
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
If cable TV had existed in 1886, everyone in the U.S. might have
been whipped into a hurricane panic. A record seven hurricanes made
landfall that year, including a Category 4 storm that hit Texas and
would have had on-the-spot cable newscasters dramatically fighting
the wind to deliver their reports. All during the 1890s, reporters
could have done the same along the Atlantic seaboard, as it was
hammered by more powerful hurricanes than it would be in any decade
except the 1950s.
Hurricane Katrina, which slammed the Gulf Coast and got
eyewall-to-eyewall media coverage, is sure to increase the sense
that there is an epidemic of hurricanes (along, of course, with an
epidemic of shark attacks and missing blond girls). Which inevitably
raises the question: "What can we do about it?" For some scientists
and activists working on the assumption that anything they don't
like must be caused by industrial emissions the answer is stop
global warming.
There is hardly an undesirable natural event, from wildfires to
hurricanes, that former Vice President Al Gore hasn't blamed on
global warming. As if it weren't for fossil-fuel emissions, the
weather would always be predictable and pleasant. An outfit called
Scientists and Engineers for Change put up a billboard in Florida
before last year's presidential election stating it starkly: "Global
warming = Worse hurricanes. George Bush just doesn't get it." Ah,
yes: Why are Bush and the neocons focused on the war in Iraq, when
there is a very real threat to the U.S. they should be addressing in
the waters of the Atlantic?
Has global warming increased the frequency of hurricanes? One of
the nation's foremost hurricane experts, William Gray, points out
that if global warming is at work, cyclones should be increasing not
just in the Atlantic but elsewhere, in the West Pacific, East
Pacific and the Indian Ocean. They aren't. The number of cyclones
per year worldwide fluctuates pretty steadily between 80 and 100.
There's actually been a small overall decline in tropical cyclones
since 1995, and Atlantic hurricanes declined from 1970 to 1994, even
as the globe was heating up.
It seems that Atlantic hurricanes come in spurts, or as the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it in more
technical language, "a quasi-cyclic multi-decade regime that
alternates between active and quiet phases." The late 1920s through
the 1960s were active; the 1970s to early 1990s quiet; and since
1995 as anyone living in Florida or Gulfport, Miss., can tell you
seems to be another active phase.
But if hurricanes aren't more frequent, are they more powerful?
Warm water fuels hurricanes, so the theory is that as the ocean's
surface heats up, hurricanes will pack more punch. An article in
Nature after questionable jiggering with the historical wind data
argues that hurricanes have doubled in strength because of global
warming. Climatologist Patrick Michaels counters that if hurricanes
had doubled in their power it would be obvious to everyone and there
would be no need to write controversial papers about it.
Indeed, if you adjust for population growth and skyrocketing
property values, hurricanes don't appear to be any more destructive
today. According to the work of Roger Pielke of the University of
Colorado, of the top five most destructive storms this century, only
one occurred after 1950 Hurricane Andrew in 1992. An NOAA
analysis says there have been fewer Category 4 storms throughout the
past 35 years than would have been expected given 20th-century
averages.
None of this data matters particularly, since proponents of
global warming will continue to link warming with hurricanes. It
generates headlines in a way that debates about tiny increments of
warming don't. And it feeds a conceit that is oddly comforting: that
whatever is wrong with the world is caused by us and fixable by us.
Alas, it's not so. Mother Nature can be a cruel and unpredictable
mistress, and sometimes all we can do is head for the high ground.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Rich Lowry Archives
© 2005 King Features Syndicate
|
|

Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Rod Dreher
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
David Harsanyi
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
James Klurfeld
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Jonathan Last
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
The Medicine Men
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Jonathan Tobin
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Jeff Stahler
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
Marybeth Hicks
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Nutrition Myths
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|