NBC, in this case, actually states the question, “What is happening to our world?” – goes to Kevin Trenberth and Katharine Hayhoe for answers. As the East Coast media picks itself up and spits out teeth, look for more of this. Take a look at this AP piece that found its way on to Fox News’ website…
WASHINGTON – Climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer stood along the Hudson River and watched his research come to life as Hurricane Sandy blew through New York.
Just eight months earlier, the Princeton University professor reported that what used to be once-in-a-century devastating floods in New York City would soon happen every three to 20 years. He blamed global warming for pushing up sea levels and changing hurricane patterns.
New York “is now highly vulnerable to extreme hurricane-surge flooding,” he wrote.
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“The ingredients of this storm seem a little bit cooked by climate change, but the overall storm is difficult to attribute to global warming,” Canada’s University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver said.
Some individual parts of Sandy and its wrath seem to be influenced by climate change, several climate scientists said.
First, there’s sea level rise. Water levels around New York are a nearly a foot higher than they were 100 years ago, said Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann.
Add to that the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean, which is about 2 degrees warmer on average than a century ago, said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University. Warm water fuels hurricanes.
After years of disagreement, climate scientists and hurricane experts have concluded that as the climate warms, there will be fewer total hurricanes. But those storms that do develop will be stronger and wetter.
Sandy took an unprecedented sharp left turn into New Jersey. Usually storms keep heading north and turn east harmlessly out to sea. But a strong ridge of high pressure centered over Greenland blocked Sandy from going north or east, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, an expert in how a warming Arctic affects extreme weather patterns, said recent warming in the Arctic may have played a role in enlarging or prolonging that high pressure area. But she cautioned it’s not clear whether the warming really had that influence on Sandy.
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On Tuesday, both New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said they couldn’t help but notice that extreme events like Sandy are causing them more and more trouble.
“What is clear is that the storms that we’ve experienced in the last year or so, around this country and around the world, are much more severe than before,” Bloomberg said. “Whether that’s global warming or what, I don’t know. But we’ll have to address those issues.”
Is this the sound of a penny dropping…? (On the GOP’s head?)
The Newscast is very good- but it fails to again tell the dire situation we are in. We have a few years left to avoid 2 degrees and 450ppm- after that it will take perhaps a thousand years to bring C02 back under 400ppm- even if we begin action by the mid 2020’s And reducing C02 50% by 2050 still guarantees a rise of 3 degrees at least above the PI level.
… Before it gets better. Strange ending, as if it will go back automatically
We’ll need a major technological breakthrough to reverse climate change. We do have the technology to switch from burning fossil fuels to renewable. Maybe an event like this, as tragic as it is, is the kick in the ass we need to gain the political will.
This news report was nullified with Fox interviewing …. Joe Bastardi!!
I recorded it and have seen it twice and I am still having trouble understating what he was trying to say.
I suspect panic attacks for climate change deniers will become more frequent than bad weather.
it’s going to get ugly. A fair number will retreat into end times prophecy or conspiracy garbage. and look for the hatred of Al Gore to get even more intense.
Fueled by morbid curiosity, I found the Bastardi interview. Among many things he said, “Heat and drought and hurricanes along the eastern seaboard are something we’ll have to deal with for the next several years because of the overall pattern, cooling Pacific, very warm Atlantic. When the Atlantic gets cold, we’ll be right back where we were in the sixties and seventies again.”
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1934091589001/bastardi-sandy-a-storm-that-was-long-overdue/
Not that one, he was with Hannity
My curiosity is not that morbid, Mr. Passenger. 🙂
Rush Limbaugh’s response was disgusting as usual. Laughing at the misfortune of others.
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/10/30/limbaugh-climate-change-is-a-nonissue-anymore-b/191007
Bastardi was saying that hurricanes on the East Coast tend to form when the AMO is warm and the PDO is cool. This is likely true, a scientist can answer that better than I can, but with all denier/skeptics you have to look at what they leave out.
Bastardi doesn’t say, for instance, that the Atlantic has been been further warmed over past records because of global warming, that the sea rise in just the past few decades increases the risk of flooding, or that the increased atmospheric temps lead to more moisture in the atmosphere (and therefore more rainfall). He also doesn’t mention the thoughts of Dr. Francis at to possibly why Sandy veered inland.
He doesn’t mention that no one is claiming Sandy formed solely because of global warming. The only thing (and it can’t yet be proven) is that global warming affected the magnitude of Sandy. Bastardi doesn’t really go into that. He does says that he should be trusted because he’s studied weather his whole life and was born during a hurricane. He always repeats the denier line that global temps are not rising.
http://www.therightscoop.com/meghan-mccain-wants-republicans-to-admit-hurricane-sandi-is-related-to-climate-change/
The end result, and it’s why Fox does stuff like this, is it opens the door to lingering doubt. Some people choose to jump right into it, some walk in after seeing the same stuff repeated elsewhere, and some just see the open door and decide that it’s still a possibility.
I’d like to agree with Peter that a 2×4 upside the head will wake everyone up. I rather think it’s going to take multiple beatings, and even then there will be some who hold out.
Michael Oppenheimer on HARDBALL
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49615769/ns/technology_and_science/#slice-1
1/4 in
“After years of disagreement, climate scientists and hurricane experts have concluded that as the climate warms,”
What? Who did disagree? 3 deniers against the world of science.
“… there will be fewer total hurricanes. But those storms that do develop will be stronger and wetter.”
Who says that? Mr Faux?
Occurrences of extreme weather events are on the rise!
Just this morning I have read several comments from climatologists and hurricane experts that were very guarded about attributing Sandy to global warming. I am sure they are correct in this, but I wonder whether they are being asked the right question. The question should be why did Sandy not follow the usual pattern for late season tropical storms and hurricanes and veer out into the mid-Atlantic? Or more simply, why did Sandy veer to the west? They should be asked about blocking patterns that are emerging due to melting of the Arctic ice and warming arctic oceans. See for example http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2012GL051000.shtml and the general review by Andrew Freedman: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-warming-is-altering-weather-patterns-study-shows I would like to see this question addressed.
Tony Loman
It think this very question will be the central focus of post mortems going forward, and we’ll know more as we see the jet evolve in response to this year’s unprecedented sea ice conditions
Thanks greenman. I just noticed that an AP story by Seth Borenstein quotes Jennifer Francis of Rutgers on this very topic. We would like to see one of your classic videos highlight Jennifer’s work.
see here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTAZue6ylZ8
will be reposting this with some context, I think, soon