Appearing as a guest on FNC's The O'Reilly Factor, meteorologist Joe Bastardi of Weatherbell Analytics -- and formerly of AccuWeather -- debunked a recent statement by Al Gore linking Hurricane Sandy to global warming. Bastardi asserted that the former Vice President's statement is either "stunningly ignorant or stunningly deceptive," and argued that hurricane seasons go through cyclical changes that stretch over decades.
After recounting strong hurricane activity from the 1950s, he continued:
He doesn't know what he's talking about, And, ever since he shot his mouth off about Katrina, we've seen total global tropical activity go to record low levels. Just because something happens in your backyard two years in a row, it has nothing to do with the total picture.
After host Bill O'Reilly allowed Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists to advocate in favor of global warming theory, he returned to Bastardi. After arguing that the changes in the hurricane cycle were predicted in the 1970s, and that the Pacific Ocean has cooled in contrast with the Atlantic, the global warming skeptic complained:
We're throwing billions and billions of dollars away when people are starving in the streets of this country. We're trying to fight a ghost that's not there. And yet, we look at people, our economy is in the tank because of all this. And, yeah, it's aggravating to me because there's no need for it.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of FNC's The O'Reilly Factor:
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: The storms are getting stronger. The stronger storms are getting more frequent. And, you know, this is the second time
in two years, that part of Manhattan has been shut down. And, you know, that didn't used to happen like this. But the evidence is now so overwhelming.
(...)
JOE BASTARDI, WEATHERBELL ANALYTICS: That's stunningly ignorant or stunningly deceptive, what Al Gore said. In the 1950s, from 1954 to 1960s, ten major hurricanes ran the Eastern Seaboard, six hit the Carolinas northward in two years, in '54, '55, including Connie and Diane, which caused unbelievable flooding in 1955. Hurricane Carol, 1954, 15 feet of water up Naraganset Bay. The 1938 hurricane, which had 186 mile an hour winds gusts at Blue Hill, Massachusetts, blew down two billion trees, caused a 50-foot surge of water across Long Island. If that storm had been 60 miles further west with the landfall at the battery, there would have been 20 feet of water into New York City.
He doesn't know what he's talking about, And, ever since he shot his mouth off about Katrina, we've seen total global tropical activity go to record low levels. Just because something happens in your backyard two years in a row, it has nothing to do with the total picture.
(...)
I've been saying for years that we were returning to the cycle of the 1950s, that the Pacific, which by the way is at record-breaking cold levels -- how about them apples? -- the Pacific is cooling, the Atlantic is warming, the Atlantic warm cycle lasts another 10 to 15 years.
What aggravates me about these people is Dr. Bill Grey of Colorado State made this prediction in the late '70s, that we were going into this very cycle, people laughed at him, here it comes. The Atlantic is warm, the Pacific is cold, the action shifts to the East Coast of the United States like it did in the 1950s for 10 to 15 years, and then we cool the Atlantic and we go back the other way.
We're throwing billions and billions of dollars away when people are starving in the streets of this country. We're trying to fight a ghost that's not there. And yet, we look at people, our economy is in the tank because of all this. And, yeah, it's aggravating to me because there's no need for it.
