Large Hurricane Rates are DOWN, not up
So I guess the right response to the folks who are running around claiming that Katrina was caused by global warming (and by the way, it's all Bush's fault) would be..... We need to burn more fossil fuels and emit lots more CO2 so we can keep the rates declining :-) Hat Tip to Powerline on this James Glassman article.Giant hurricanes are rare, but they are not new. And they are not increasing. To the contrary. Just go to the website of the National Hurricane Center and check out a table that lists hurricanes by category and decade. The peak for major hurricanes (categories 3,4,5) came in the decades of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, when such storms averaged 9 per decade. In the 1960s, there were 6 such storms; in the 1970s, 4; in the 1980s, 5; in the 1990s, 5; and for 2001-04, there were 3. Category 4 and 5 storms were also more prevalent in the past than they are now. As for Category 5 storms, there have been only three since the 1850s: in the decades of the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s.
I really hate it when the facts don't line up my preconceived opinions. And if you think the water levels in the south are staggering and unprecedented do a search on the 1927 flood.
Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for the people who are impacted by this natural disaster. They are in my prayers and I wish them well (except the looters and the idiot who shot at the helicopter rescuing people, they should be summarily executed). But let's not let this tragedy cloud our judgment and go off and do things based on crazy, unsupported accusations of people who are clearly talking out of their....... ears (it's a family show).
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