Blame climate change, not just Bush, for tragedy in New Orleans

Yet, weeks after the catastrophe, America is having a hard time understanding this. The nation’s political critics are so busy exposing Washington’s inept preparation for Katrina that they’ve almost completely obscured its real source. For years, the world’s most authoritative scientific bodies, not to mention environmental non-governmental organizations, have said that global warming will create more destructive weather patterns. America’s media, including the critical left, largely ignored their cries. American citizens also turned the other cheek, choosing instead to carry on with our disgustingly wasteful, fossil-fuel driven lifestyles. Now the people of the Gulf Coast are paying the price.

That the environmentalists have been vindicated in their predictions is almost beyond dispute. Man-made global warming has elevated average ocean temperatures by one degree over the last half century. Meanwhile, the overall intensity of tropical storms has doubled since the 1970s, according to a recent study by MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel. In the Northwest Pacific Ocean, they are seventy-five percent more powerful. Warmer oceans have injected tropical storms with extra energy, thus increasing their power. It’s that simple.

But I’m not the only one who thinks so. Here’s Dr. Emanuel in the journal Nature: "the record of net hurricane power dissipation is highly correlated with tropical sea surface temperature, reflecting well-documented climate signals, including.global warming." "My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in tropical cyclone destructive potential."

Arms of the United States government are making similar analyses. Shortly after Katrina struck, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that as many as twelve more tropical storms - including four major hurricanes - may batter the Atlantic before the season ends on November 30. If correct, this would bring the season tally to twenty-one storms, double the average. Why the sudden upsurge? NOAA climatologists are blaming a warmed Atlantic ocean. "Warmer ocean temperatures are more likely to produce stronger, more intense storms", NOAA climatologist David Easterling told the IPS News Service.

The biography of Hurricane Katrina illustrates the process perfectly. When it first arrived in Florida, it was a Category One storm - low on the scale used to measure the power of hurricanes. Only a day after it reached the warmer Gulf of Mexico, the storm shot up to Category Five. It was a Category Four when it reached New Orleans.

Still not convinced? Here’s a final piece of evidence. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) sounded a famously loud alarm in a press release two years ago: "Record extremes in weather and climate events continue to occur around the world. Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might increase." Use of the term "might" may seem to belie the urgency of this statement; remember that serious scientists use measured language as a matter of principle. The only place you’re likely to find unequivocal statements on climate science is in fossil fuel industry-funded propaganda organs like the World Climate Report.

It’s nearly impossible, of course, to conclusively attribute any single instance of extreme weather to climate change. But the scientific evidence, briefly surveyed above, overwhelmingly suggests that global warming will make (and has made) weather patterns more destructive. Over the last century, the Earth warmed an average of 1.4 degrees. Some 90% of this warming was directly absorbed by the oceans. As we can see, the results have proven ugly. Yet, this may be a mere shadow of things to come; an authoritative Oxford University study says the earth could be eighteen degrees warmer by 2100. It’s absolutely chilling to think about what this could mean for our planet.

At the end of the day, one thing is absolutely clear: carrying on like normal is simply not an option. Humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels, which cause the greenhouse effect and warming, is wreaking havoc across the world. It’s not an exaggeration to say climate change could wipe out our and every other species. The defining task of our generation is to resolve the climate crisis, so we may as well get started already.