Munich Re's release, published two weeks ago, directly addresses the question of whether climate change is causing hurricanes like Sandy this year and Irene last year:
Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America. The study shows a nearly quintupled number of weather-related loss events in North America for the past three decades, compared with an increase factor of 4 in Asia, 2.5 in Africa, 2 in Europe and 1.5 in South America. Anthropogenic climate change is believed to contribute to this trend, though it influences various perils in different ways. Climate change particularly affects formation of heat-waves, droughts, intense precipitation events, and in the long run most probably also tropical cyclone intensity.A big insurance company is saying specifically that all the droughts, massive snowstorms, downpours, tornadoes and hurricanes we've been having the last few years are caused by us burning too many hydrocarbons.
Sandy is almost a thousand miles wide, more than twice the size of Katrina and four hundred miles wider than Irene. The exact mechanism for why climate change is making Sandy so huge is well known: the jet stream is funneling air south as hot tropical air is coming north. The unprecedented melting of the arctic ice cap is the direct cause of that shift in the jet stream. A high pressure area over Greenland is also contributing to the problem.
Because climate change is making storms bigger, millions more people are being flooded out of their homes and losing electricity than would have been otherwise. Areas along the coast are densely populated and filled with lots of expensive infrastructure (ports, military bases, etc.) and critical services (like the stock market in New York). Storms that would have been relatively minor inconveniences will now kill dozens or hundreds of people and inflict tens of billions of dollars of damage.
And that's why insurance companies are taking climate change seriously.
16 comments:
Biggest storm since 1938! As we all know, 1938 was back when we were REALLY putting hydrocarbons into the air!
"unprecedented melting of the arctic ice cap"
Maybe now some intrepid explorer will finally be able to transit the Northwest Passage. That has NEVER been done before!
And you forgot to blame all of this on Bush and the evil fatcat (R) regime.
"back when we were REALLY putting hydrocarbons into the air!"
Obviously you aren't up on your climate history. People were putting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere long before the industrial revolution.
Bill, the sarcasm obviously escaped you. Good luck with the rest of my comments.
Oops, forgot which blog I was on. I meant to say: Mark (umm... Bill Nye...) excellent swerve into a comment inducing comment. ANARCHY! Palin ROCKS!
Good point, Bill and welcome. I'm glad someone finally made it. The next few years are going to see a lot more investigation into those earlier times which also saw minor emissions that may have had an effect even back then. I'm hoping that we can then leave behind the blog argument aspect of this issue and actually work within the settled science.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/oct/30/picket-al-gore-blames-hurricane-sandy-global-warmi/
Your heroes mock you. Not intentionally, of course.
New York and New England were hit with powerful hurricanes in 1821 and 1938. In 1821, the hurricane was called, The Great September Gale. In 1938, the hurricane, aptly named the Long Island Express, slammed New York and New England with winds of up to 120 MPH.
et al
So true Mark. In 1821, the world population had just hit one billion. Now, assuming each one of those people simultaneously burned a cord of hardwood, settled science shows that a massive hurricane would smash into New York City.
Settled Science people!
Plus, settled science shows that if the ice floating on the surface of the Arctic Ocean were to melt, the oceans would rise 900 feet!
Settled Science!
Spontaneous generation of maggots from fetid meat. Settled Science, by no less than Aristotle!
Martian Canals! Phlogiston Theory!
Don't even get me started on Luminiferous Aether!
Settled Science!
There's a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to the difference between climate and weather. Then there is the childish taunting of people like Al Gore in the continuing effort to win a blog argument (something that climate change should be thoroughly and completely removed from.
Hurricane Sandy in and of itself isn't an example of climate change. One has to look at the trends in climate and not just a weather event. That's what the NAS does and that's why it is settled science.
Dateline: Hoboken, NJ
"Tempers flared Wednesday morning outside City Hall as some residents complained the city was slow to get food and other supplies out to the stranded."
Any guesses if they vote (D)?
If you heeded the warning from every media outlet and evacuated or prepared, then you didn't build that.
So tornado numbers and intensity are flat or down, hurricane numbers and intensity flat or down, and that proves what? Seven years of no hurricane of consequence coming ashore in North America -- that's just weather, you Rethuglican oil-swilling, corporate cock-suckers. One low intensity, but wide hurricane hitting more temperate latitudes than most do (but as a handful always have), that's PROOF of CLIMATE CHANGE, you losers! Fuck the fact that it was warmer 1000 years ago, and warmer than that 2000 years ago, and that we're still coming out of the Little Ice Age.
What a strange site. I don't get the joke. Climate deniers@unhinged.com.
Sorry for the BS, Bill. I have a few commenters that are under the mistaken impression that if they verbally berate new commenters then they "win"...whatever contest they think we are having. They also think they are the only ones who post here and any new commenter is actually me. Of course, they aren't privy to the site stats which show about 300-400 readers daily from all over the world. Most don't comment and just read.
Unfortunately, the RWBDs have largely been successful at chasing off liberal commenters and, if I actually put some more time in posting on other sites to attract different readers, that might change. And since I don't really have any strict rules about commenting, they get to display their adolescence in all its (ahem) glory.
What's a RWBD? I found this site via some other climate change links and since I'm an 8th grade earth science teacher, I thought I'd throw in my views. As we learn more about CO2 emissions throughout history, I think the damage we have done to our planet will become more apparent.
RWBDs are kind of Kulaks with Keyboards, the Blogging Bourgeoisie. People Mark wishes could be "put down for rabies once and for all". You know, like the rabid running dogs of capitalism that they are. Nikto's less even-tempered than Mark, but he makes up for it by hating kikes and niggers, too.
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