20050917

Katrina and Global Warming

If one is not going to be a bigot, one needs to at least consider that Katrina was caused by Global Warming.

Now even if Global Warming is affecting the number and intensity of hurricanes not every hurricane can be blamed on Global Warming. We have had intense hurricanes in the past. Just seems we have recently been seeing more of them.

However some of the experts say the documented increase is just part of a natural cycle that we would be experiencing even if Global Warming was not occurring. Well at least they are ceasing to claim the ridiculous. Now they are no longer trying to claim there is no such thing as Global Warming. I guess this is progress.

Even those that still want us to keep our heads buried in the sand now admit the oceans' average water temperature has risen. So should we expect this shift in ocean temperatures to affect weather patterns? Would this be a realistic expectation? Think about it for yourself. You do not have to be an expert. Even "experts" disagree (which leads to the question Which one is then the expert and which one really the fool?) But what does every common man already know that he can use to judge what the experts have to say?

I am sure you have heard of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. What is the accepted cause of El Nino? Off the coasts of South America, due to yet unexplained reasons, the ocean temperature periodically rises in a localized area and this affects weather patterns all the way up here in North America, right? This is accepted as fact by ALL the experts. So rising ocean water temperatures can affect weather patterns. But "some" experts (and this appears to be a minority of them) look at what also is starting to become accepted fact, that the all around average ocean temperature is rising, and insist that this will not have any effect on weather patterns. So who is the fool?

I recall reading where one large world insurance industry group came up with their own assessment of how Global Warming would affect the future. Their prediction was pretty dire. They say that within 50 years the annual damage due to Global Warming will exceed the annual world Gross Domestic Product. That means if every man, woman and child worked as hard as they could to ONLY repair the damage they will not be able to keep up with it. This prediction did not come from Green Peace, it came from people in the insurance industry who are trying to make a buck off insurance.

So just because "all the experts" can not come to a decision does not mean that you can not come to a decision of your own. Remember, some of these experts are motivated to be contrarians. If everyone else is saying the blue chair is painted blue, the one sure way to get noticed is by being the oddball that insists it really is painted some shade of green.

Ocean temperatures are rising. This rise in temperature is certain to affect weather patterns somehow. It might be impossible to predict exactly how global weather patterns are going to be impacted, but change is sure to happen. Will the changes have to be catastrophic? Not necessarily. The only thing for certain is that they will be different... and I have not been real pleased with the changes I have been noting recently.

And some fools that run around describing themselves as experts say "Don't worry, be happy"!

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