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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mr. Bush, meet global warming

Wayne Madsen Knight Ridder

American and international scientists have warned us for years about the dire effects of global warming. Rising atmospheric temperatures have resulted in higher ocean temperatures. Rising ocean temperatures fuel more deadly storms. It is that simple.

But for George W. Bush and his administration the numerous international scientific studies pointing to a direct correlation between global warming and an increase in global storm activity is merely “fuzzy math” based on “silly science.”

This two-word sloganeering has been a hallmark of the Bush administration but it has proved disastrous for low-lying coastal areas like the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans, Pacific island atolls, and other at- or below-sea level regions of the world.

Bush’s propaganda is supported by such ideological doppelgangers as Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, who scream “junk science” at those who endorse the scientific fact of global warming.

But if Bush does not want to believe the scientists, perhaps he would take note of his own government’s experts.

In July 2004, the government conducted a computer exercise called “Hurricane Pam.” Pam was modeled as a strong Category 3 hurricane that breached New Orleans’ levees, flooding the city and resulting in stranded residents on rooftops and hundreds of thousands of displaced evacuees. Sound familiar? Although Katrina was a stronger Category 4-5 hurricane, the results were much the same as the Hurricane Pam exercise.

What is interesting is that the government hurricane and disaster experts chose to call their computer model hurricane “Pam.” They, too, recognized that named Atlantic storms are increasing in frequency. We are already up to the “Os” (Ophelia) this hurricane season, which is just half over. The number of Atlantic hurricanes this year looks set to break an all-time record.

A study reported in the respected scientific journal Nature concluded that hurricanes and typhoons have increased in strength, duration and frequency over the last 30 years.

Professor Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the intensity and duration of hurricanes have increased by 50 percent and that the intensity of hurricanes has risen by 5 percent for every 1.8 degree increase in the temperature of the ocean’s surface.

The venerable National Geographic reports that most of the world’s scientists agree that rising sea surface temperatures over the last 30 to 50 years is a definite sign of global warming.

Echoing international scientists, the United Kingdom’s chief science adviser, David King, told Britain’s Channel 4, “The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming. We have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade.”

Germany’s Environment Minister Jurgen Trittin said the “United States has kept its eyes shut” to the problems of greenhouse emissions and their effects like Katrina.

However, like syndicated columnists, there is no shortage of scientists willing to carry the Bush administration’s water in return for money. This distinct minority of scientists, whose jobs are to debunk the findings of their peers who have proved the existence of global warming from greenhouse emissions, have gladly traded their professional independence in return for handsome grants and honoraria from the oil and coal industry and affiliated “nonprofit” think tanks like the Cato Institute.

It is clear that the Bush administration’s six years of hostility to international efforts to stem the effects of global warming are now, as predicted, drastically affecting the coastal regions of the world.