For those that have forgotten – or just intentionally blocked it out -- in the schlockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore contended that global warming was responsible for increased hurricane activity with ominous portent for the future of such storms. In fact, this was a common media meme in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Yet, according to an article by Reuters Tuesday, not only does this appear not to be the case, but global warming actual reduces tropical cyclone frequency and intensity (emphasis added throughout):
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.
How spectacular, wouldn’t you agree? Think this will get much airplay, or that anybody might actually ask Gore, or the “Stop Global Warming” tourists Sheryl Crow and Laurie David their opinions of this finding?
Regardless, the article continued:
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.
Debate on the likelihood that human-generated climate change contributes to hurricane development has raged since the 2005 Atlantic season, which produced a record-shattering 28 tropical storms and hurricanes.
Remarkably, the article even addressed the recent United Nations report, and its potentially errant view on this issue:
In February a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was "more likely than not" that humans contribute to a trend of increasingly intense hurricanes.
But researchers in the new study said increased wind shear could counter the effect of warming waters in the Atlantic.
"The environmental changes found in the study do not suggest a big increase in tropical Atlantic hurricane activity during the 21st century," said Brian Soden, a co-author of the report.
How wonderful. Wouldn’t it be nice if the media held Gore’s feet to the fire concerning this study, or would that be too much like investigative reporting rather than advancing a liberal agenda?
