NY Times Reporter Justin Gillis Again Uses Natural Disaster to Promote 'Climate Change'
By Clay Waters | August 29, 2011 | 13:21
Never let a natural disaster go to waste. In August 2010, New York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis reacted to that summer's heat waves and flooding with “In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming” on the front page of the Times. So it was no surprise he took advantage of Hurricane Irene in Sunday’s edition, “Seeing Irene as Harbinger of a Change in Climate.”
Gillis’s latest story, admittedly written when Irene looked more dangerous than it turned out to be, was also guilty of disaster hype.
The scale of Hurricane Irene, which could cause more extensive damage along the Eastern Seaboard than any storm in decades, is reviving an old question: are hurricanes getting worse because of human-induced climate change?
The short answer from scientists is that they are still trying to figure it out. But many of them do believe that hurricanes will get more intense as the planet warms, and they see large hurricanes like Irene as a harbinger.
While the number of the most intense storms has clearly been rising since the 1970s, researchers have come to differing conclusions about whether that increase can be attributed to human activities.
Blogger A.J. Strata reminded the Times that Hurricane Isabel caused massive damage and deaths just eight years ago.
Apparently the NY Times is not aware that 8 years is not a longer time span than ‘decades’. In 2003 a little ‘ol Cat 2 hurricane (not a middling Cat 1 such as Irene) hit the “Eastern Seaboard”, rearranging the outer banks and pitching the DC area into darkness for days.
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Gillis does admit the jury is still out on details, but is confident that a line can be drawn from greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to more vulnerable coastlines from hurricanes.
The ocean has been getting warmer for decades, and most climate scientists say it is because greenhouse gases are trapping extra heat. Rising sea-surface temperatures are factored into both Mr. Knutson’s and Dr. Emanuel’s analyses, but they disagree on the effect that warming in remote areas of the tropics will have on Atlantic hurricanes.
Air temperatures are also rising because of greenhouse gases, scientists say. That causes land ice to melt, one of several factors leading to a rise in sea level. That increase, in turn, is making coastlines more vulnerable to damage from the storm surges that can accompany powerful hurricanes.
Overall damage from hurricanes has skyrocketed in recent decades, but most experts agree that is mainly due to excessive development along vulnerable coastlines.
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Comments
Does Justin Gillis have a
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 1:26pm.
Does Justin Gillis have a degree in atmospheric science to corroborate these "scientists".
Just wondering....
More extensive damage? In
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 1:29pm.
More extensive damage? In terms of what? Dollars? It was barely a Cat 2 at its strongest and was reduced to Cat 1 quickly. It was the path of the storm that had it going over more populated areas than the norm. That has nothing to do with "climate change" as it is currently believed. Gillis is grasping at straws even as "climate change" proponents go.
Unprecedented damage and
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 1:38pm.
Unprecedented damage and chaos caused by insert event here
But there was little damage from the Hurricane.
Submitted by ArcherB on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 1:57pm.
Since there was such little damage from the hurricane itself, does that mean all these doomsday forecasters will go back on the air and say it's evidence that global warming is not as bad as they thought. After all, if a strong hurricane is evidence that global warming is happening, shouldn't that mean that a weak hurricane is sign that global warming ISN'T happening?
You can't have it both ways.
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary."
--Ernesto "Che" Guevara
The fix is in...
Submitted by c5then on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 1:58pm.
As the development along the costline increases the left increasingly wants to refer to the $$ amount of damage caused. This is of course a subjective emotional measurement not an objective scientific measurement.
So we have just gone through a minimal Cat 1 hurricane causing minimal damage along the east cost, but because it affected millions of people the damage will be measured in the $ billions. Decades ago we had a Cat2 or Cat 3 that traveled a similar path, but because the population was much smaller, the amount affected was much less (not to mention the effects of inflation), so we saw damage only measured in the $ millions. So now the left wants to say that becasue of this apples to oranges comparison, that hurricanes are getting worse.
Part time Congress with term limits! - No more professional politicians. Let's start rebuilding the Republic!
I thought Katrina was the harbinger of Climate Change
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:07pm.
We were told that hurricanes would become more frequent and intense, yet the data hasn't borne that out.
While in terms of damage, Irene is significant to the northern Eastern Seaboard. But it was, afterall, a CAT 1, that decreased to a tropical storm -- nothing like the whoppers that occasionally hit Florida and the Gulf Coast.
I will never forget.......
Submitted by GregE on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:22pm.
..........2007 Hurricane Barry heading for Florida early in the season.....June 1. Harry Reid says of this storm that it just more proof of global warming. (I cant find the quote or video, but I'll never forget his saying it)
One storm, early, and there's the proof, according to Harry.
Joseph Goebbels.....
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Political Correctness - the belief that one can pick up a turd by the clean end.
Check out this
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:35pm.
Climate Baloney
1938 Hurricane
Submitted by TerryWest on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:58pm.
In 1938 a hurricane hit the east coast, including New York City.
The storm hit Long Island on September 21st, 1938 as a Category 3. Estimates are that between 682 and 800 people died, with over 700 injured.
New York City was not directly hit, but 75 mile-an-hour winds in Manhattan caused the East River to flow 3 blocks inland. The Empire State Building swayed in the heavy winds. A movie theater showing a matinee was swept out to sea, and 21 people drowned.
The storm hit Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The largest numbers of deaths occurred in Rhode Island.
It was the first major hurricane to hit New England since >1869.
The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at US$306 million ($4.77 billion in 2011).
source / search / Great New England Hurricane
Didn't you know...the 1938
Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 9:38am.
Didn't you know...the 1938 hurricane was caused by global warming today.
Reminds me of a quote:
"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" -- J. Wellington Wimpy
I love the phrase, " worst in
Submitted by inquiringmind on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:44pm.
I love the phrase, " worst in ( fill in the blank) years". When the Libs say this don't they realize that means "x" years ago we had weather that matches or exceeds what we are experiencing now. They are defeating their own argument.
Katrina? Bush's Fault... Irene? Bush's Fault... Earthquake?
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:47pm.
Bush hates black people. That's why Katrina happened.
Obama was busy shanking golf balls when Irene hit, therefore it must be Bush's Fault.
Earthquake?
Hmmmmm. Arab Spring/Summer/Fall?
Tsunami?
Bush?
Limbaugh?
Come on, we need a scapegoat!!!
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
Sack of bald faced LIES
Submitted by upcountrywater on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 3:04pm.
While the number of the most intense storms has clearly been rising since the 1970s, researchers have come to differing conclusions about whether that increase can be attributed to human activities.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastint.shtml
Using your flawed logic Most 5 and 4 and 3 hurricanes on this list should date after 1970.... OPPS.
Northern Hemisphere and global tropical cyclone ACE has decreased dramatically to the lowest levels since the late 1970s.
http://coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/
Ocean temps.
http://www.cencoos.org/visual_media/news/Climate_Change/Breaker_Hopkins_...
http://climatide.wgbh.org/files/2010/10/AMSRE-SST-Global-thru-27-Oct-201...
Finding your "facts" on facebook I see.
O'bama 0% capital gains @4:58 and so much more.
No trend
Submitted by deadeyedan on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 3:05pm.
Increasing hurricane intensity is not occurring. Though Atlantic Basin activity in 2010 was above normal, the earth as a whole had record low total TCI, Tropical Cyclone Intensity.
This year has been running much the same scenario, with reservations. This Tropical Storm Jose that was recently elevated to that status is one of nearly a dozen tropical (and even non-tropical) waves in the past few years which have been accorded the title apparently just to jack up the numbers.
Jose was a virtual blank on the weather charts at the time when it suddenly became perceived as worthy of attention. There was a time not that far in the past it would not have been accorded a second glance.
Global warming - authoritarian, rather than authoritative, science
ClimateGate - the revelation that the pseudo-scientists at East Anglia University know just as much about the atmosphere as Harvard law professors know about the Constitution
Are Hurricanes getting stronger, or more frequent?
Submitted by Gary Hall on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 3:08pm.
I don't have time to document all of this in the moment, but I think many of us around here are aware of numerous studies/reports completed during recent years which I believe provide these general findings:
And yes, some scientists theorize that with a warmer climate and warmer water, there could be a slight increase in the intensity of hurricanes . . an 136 mph storm, could become a 139 mph storm, etc.
On the other hand, some scientists theorize that in a warmer climate, there could just as likely be a decrease in such storms.
It would seem that so far, there is no evidence to be had which suggests much of anything.
(;~/ gary
Global warming....
Submitted by almostacowboy77 on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 3:11pm.
my flat white butt. According to the Detroit Free Press it was caused by MLK!
http://www.hinterlandgazette.com/2011/08/detroit-free-press-columnist-ro...
Gillis are you kidding me?
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 3:48pm.
Everyone on my father's side of the family dated everything as either happening before or after the 1900 Storm -- you know Gillis the one that caused the most deaths (6,000-8,000) of any natural disaster to ever hit the US -- and what about the 1906 earthquake that destroyed much of San Francisco? And again what's your take on the Great Hurricane of 1938 in New England that killed 700-800 people?
Gillis we can go on here if you like but I believe they all occurred either before automobiles were common or when there were very few and other pollutants were as low as the population. So how's that Al Gore created manmade global warming thing coming along for you then? Oh I know "it's settled science" but what's it based on Gillis? Al Gore's documentary or your lack of education?
Irene....
Submitted by GregE on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:30pm.
.........was the first hurricane to hit the continental US in 3 years. Was it bad? Of course.
Did global warming cause the previous 3-year calm? Well probably so, as "global warming" seems to be the answer to everything climate-related. As if before 50 years ago, the earth had no climate.
Political Correctness - the belief that one can pick up a turd by the clean end.
1635
Submitted by xfast on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:51pm.
I've seen plenty of references to 1938 (not by the global warmists). But how about the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 when a strong Cat 3 hurricane plowed into Massachusetts Bay in the middle of the Little Ice Age? Also, there is the Great Hurricane of 1780 which plowed into Barbados with wind gusts believed to have exceeded 200mph and over 20,000 people died in the storm.
American media is not about presenting facts and information. It is about infotainment and political agendas. We are in the midst of a full scale propaganda assault by the leftists. Defeating them determines if we move back towards freedom vs. ignoring them and allowing a steady march to socialism followed shortly after by communism.
Don't forget the Galveston
Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 9:41am.
Don't forget the Galveston hurricane of 1900, the deadliest hurricane in United States history. Estimated to have made landfall as a Cat. 4 hurricane.
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Thanks for the SPAM.
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 3:00am.
I wrote in too.