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1. The article doesn't say Harvey was caused by climate change, it said it made it worse. Reading is key.
2. Many of the historical floods on your list were more man-made than natural. Which is historical proof that human activity can have a serious detrimental impact on the environment. For example, the 1887 Yellow River Flood that caused almost a million deaths:
For centuries, the farmers living near the Yellow River had built dikes to contain the waters, which over time flowed higher because silt accumulated on the riverbed. In 1887, this rising river, swollen by days of heavy rain, overcame the dikes on around 28 September, causing a massive flood. Since there is no international unit to measure a flood's strength it is usually classified by the extent of the damage done, depth of water left and number of casualties.
3. Do you think higher sea level (ie: caused by melting of polar ice) makes a natural flood better or worse? Warm ocean water temperatures, warmer air temperatures are key ingredients of a hurricane and resulting floods. If the ocean level were a foot or two higher, those historical floods would have been much worse.
4. Climate change doesn't cause natural disasters; it makes them worse, and more frequent. A great natural disaster that may have occurred once every 50 years in the past, may now be taking place once every five years.
5. Dumping millions of tons of garbage, sewage, plastic and chemical waste into the oceans every day is going to have an impact on the environment. Similarly, the release of man-made pollutants into the air, including the emissions from billions of cars and millions of factories, will have an impact on the climate. We can debate what kind of impact that will be, but only a moron would claim it has no impact.
...was one of the major causes of the Great Depression. The great drought known as the Dust Bowl was a result of poor industrial farming practices, that made natural drought conditions much worse. Another example of how human activity alters the environment. Every year hundreds of species of wildlife goes extinct as a direct result of human industrial activity. Overfishing, the dumping of vast amounts of sewage into the oceans has turned miles of coastal areas into toxic wastelands unsuitable for human activity, as well as creating large toxic dead zones in the deep oceans that can be seen from space. In short, only a complete idiot would say that man has no capacity to alter his environment.
Prove it. If it's a fact, why did the article use words like "almost certainly"? Why not plain old certainly?
Because if they had..people like you would have pored over the article until they found some wiggle room....and lambasted the article for 'fake science'--that's why.
It has been 12 years since we had a hurricane. A big one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LauraC
Read about the Hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. Worse than Harvey.
It's not just about hurricanes as Harvey hasn't been a hurricane for days yet it continues to cause damage due to the amount of moisture. The hurricane Matthew last year that came up the east coast of Florida caused extensive damage whit the rain in North Carolina, Sandy wasn't even a hurricane when it hit. We have had many severe events including in Texas. The warmer ocean water is causing more these events.
1. The article doesn't say Harvey was caused by climate change, it said it made it worse. Reading is key.
2. Many of the historical floods on your list were more man-made than natural. Which is historical proof that human activity can have a serious detrimental impact on the environment. For example, the 1887 Yellow River Flood that caused almost a million deaths:
For centuries, the farmers living near the Yellow River had built dikes to contain the waters, which over time flowed higher because silt accumulated on the riverbed. In 1887, this rising river, swollen by days of heavy rain, overcame the dikes on around 28 September, causing a massive flood. Since there is no international unit to measure a flood's strength it is usually classified by the extent of the damage done, depth of water left and number of casualties.
3. Do you think higher sea level (ie: caused by melting of polar ice) makes a natural flood better or worse? Warm ocean water temperatures, warmer air temperatures are key ingredients of a hurricane and resulting floods. If the ocean level were a foot or two higher, those historical floods would have been much worse.
4. Climate change doesn't cause natural disasters; it makes them worse, and more frequent. A great natural disaster that may have occurred once every 50 years in the past, may now be taking place once every five years.
5. Dumping millions of tons of garbage, sewage, plastic and chemical waste into the oceans every day is going to have an impact on the environment. Similarly, the release of man-made pollutants into the air, including the emissions from billions of cars and millions of factories, will have an impact on the climate. We can debate what kind of impact that will be, but only a moron would claim it has no impact.
...was one of the major causes of the Great Depression. The great drought known as the Dust Bowl was a result of poor industrial farming practices, that made natural drought conditions much worse. Another example of how human activity alters the environment. Every year hundreds of species of wildlife goes extinct as a direct result of human industrial activity. Overfishing, the dumping of vast amounts of sewage into the oceans has turned miles of coastal areas into toxic wastelands unsuitable for human activity, as well as creating large toxic dead zones in the deep oceans that can be seen from space. In short, only a complete idiot would say that man has no capacity to alter his environment.
You ignored the fact that MANY of the large floods on the list were pre-industrial age, therefore 'global warming' didn't apply. Yet the floods still killed many people. Explain.
Global warming didn't cause the hurricane -- but it definitely made it worse. Sea level rise and warmer ocean temperatures act like hurricane steroids:
"As sea surface temperatures rise, more ocean water evaporates into the atmosphere. The relationship is exponential, says Kirtman. "For a small change in temperature, you get a huge amount of evaporation," he says.
Surface temperatures in the Gulf have been above average this summer. The air was filled with humidity. And then came Harvey. It swept up the humid air and then wrung it out over Texas like a sponge." How A Warmer Climate Helped Shape Harvey : The Two-Way : NPR
Michael Mann:
"What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.
Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge."
More frequent and severe weather
Higher temperatures are worsening many types of disasters, including storms, heat waves, floods, and droughts. A warmer climate creates an atmosphere that can collect, retain, and drop more water, changing weather patterns in such a way that wet areas become wetter and dry areas drier. "Extreme weather events are costing more and more,
The science behind these events is undeniable, warmer oceans have consequences.
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