2008 Woodie Awards
Point/Counterpoint: the global warming debate
Erich Pilcher and Matthew Moss
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Rise in storms is part of a natural progression; has nothing to do with global warming
Once again leave it to the people of the United States of America to blame something like pollution for more hurricanes and have no facts to back it up.
Hurricanes feed off warm water and this year's storms have wreaked devastation across the southern coast.
Blaming global warming is an inadequate statement.
The most active hurricane season was 1933, when 21 systems reached tropical storm status. The second most violent hurricane season was 1995, when 19 systems reached tropical storm status.
Even though this hurricane season caused mass destruction it was nowhere close to the numbers produced in the past two destructive seasons.
In 1933 do you think that there were many people forming an outcry regarding global warming and pollution? No, because there are many more issues that can contribute to a hurricane season.
If global warming were to blame, there should have been more typhoons in the Pacific and Indian oceans - instead there was a decrease this season, while China and India have increased their output of greenhouse gasses. If global warming were to blame shouldn't these areas be affected?
Many hurricane experts state that the increase in hurricanes is hardly an issue and a cause for global uproar. The National Organization & Atmospheric Administration's top hurricane analyst, Gerry Bell, said that every 25 years or so tropical and atmospheric factors cause the hurricane count to swing - such as this season.
People who think they know what they are talking about try to say global warming caused this season's storm surge. They go into a tangent about how world pollution has been the counterpart of the destruction of this hurricane season. They're just jumping to conclusions. Like many Americans, they're trying to find reasoning and logic for this deadly storm season when it is simply a natural progression.
- Erich Pilcher, Sports Editor
Recent studies show disturbing connection between global warming and increasing storm activity
The surge in storm activity this hurricane season is evidence that global warming is having an adverse effect on Earth's weather.
This past year has seen a record number of powerful storms, 23 in all, as well as record-setting damage to Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. In the wake of the destruction left by these storms, people are left both picking up the pieces and searching for an explanation.
To understand how global warming can affect storms, one must understand how storms are generated in the first place:
"Seasonal shifts in global wind patterns cause atmospheric disturbances in the tropics, leading to a local drop in pressure at sea level and forcing air to rise over warm ocean waters," a Union of Concerned Scientists study said.
"As warm, moist air rises, it further lowers air pressure at sea level and draws surrounding air inward and upward in a rotating pattern called a vortex. When the water vapor-laden air rises to higher altitudes, it cools and releases heat as it condenses to rain. This cycle of evaporation and condensation brings the ocean's thermal energy into the vortex, powering the storm."
Furthermore, a 2005 study published in the journal Nature makes the connection between hurricane intensity and duration and rising ocean temperatures. The study found that storm power in the Atlantic and Pacific has doubled in the past 30 years.Natural temperature cycles alone cannot explain ocean warming.
The UCS claims human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have caused carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to rise significantly higher than at any time during the past 400,000 years.
Carbon dioxide, along with other heat-trapping emissions such as methane, acts like insulation in the lower atmosphere, warming land and ocean surface temperatures .As a result, sea temperatures have risen by almost one degree Fahrenheit since 1970.
Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures in the month of September have risen far above levels documented since 1930, the UCS said. This year, late August and September were the most devastating months for the Gulf States.
Rising temperatures are not going to go away on their own - it will take a concerted effort by all industrialized nations to come up with energy and manufacturing policies that can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to a Nov. 8 article in The Wall Street Journal, the International Energy Agency released a report Nov. 7 urging the United States and other industrialized nations to search for cleaner and more renewable sources of energy. In the report, the IEA warn that hydrocarbon emissions could rise by as much as 50 percent by 2030.
Hydrocarbons, which come mostly from burning oil and natural gas, are be linked by the UCS with global warming.
Clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power as well as nuclear energy, could reduce domestic use of dirty fuels like oil and natural gas and reduce global warming.
A proactive stance must be taken to combat global warming or else we can expect a repeat of this year's deadly and costly storm season.
- Matthew Moss, Copy Editor
Once again leave it to the people of the United States of America to blame something like pollution for more hurricanes and have no facts to back it up.
Hurricanes feed off warm water and this year's storms have wreaked devastation across the southern coast.
Blaming global warming is an inadequate statement.
The most active hurricane season was 1933, when 21 systems reached tropical storm status. The second most violent hurricane season was 1995, when 19 systems reached tropical storm status.
Even though this hurricane season caused mass destruction it was nowhere close to the numbers produced in the past two destructive seasons.
In 1933 do you think that there were many people forming an outcry regarding global warming and pollution? No, because there are many more issues that can contribute to a hurricane season.
If global warming were to blame, there should have been more typhoons in the Pacific and Indian oceans - instead there was a decrease this season, while China and India have increased their output of greenhouse gasses. If global warming were to blame shouldn't these areas be affected?
Many hurricane experts state that the increase in hurricanes is hardly an issue and a cause for global uproar. The National Organization & Atmospheric Administration's top hurricane analyst, Gerry Bell, said that every 25 years or so tropical and atmospheric factors cause the hurricane count to swing - such as this season.
People who think they know what they are talking about try to say global warming caused this season's storm surge. They go into a tangent about how world pollution has been the counterpart of the destruction of this hurricane season. They're just jumping to conclusions. Like many Americans, they're trying to find reasoning and logic for this deadly storm season when it is simply a natural progression.
- Erich Pilcher, Sports Editor
Recent studies show disturbing connection between global warming and increasing storm activity
The surge in storm activity this hurricane season is evidence that global warming is having an adverse effect on Earth's weather.
This past year has seen a record number of powerful storms, 23 in all, as well as record-setting damage to Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. In the wake of the destruction left by these storms, people are left both picking up the pieces and searching for an explanation.
To understand how global warming can affect storms, one must understand how storms are generated in the first place:
"Seasonal shifts in global wind patterns cause atmospheric disturbances in the tropics, leading to a local drop in pressure at sea level and forcing air to rise over warm ocean waters," a Union of Concerned Scientists study said.
"As warm, moist air rises, it further lowers air pressure at sea level and draws surrounding air inward and upward in a rotating pattern called a vortex. When the water vapor-laden air rises to higher altitudes, it cools and releases heat as it condenses to rain. This cycle of evaporation and condensation brings the ocean's thermal energy into the vortex, powering the storm."
Furthermore, a 2005 study published in the journal Nature makes the connection between hurricane intensity and duration and rising ocean temperatures. The study found that storm power in the Atlantic and Pacific has doubled in the past 30 years.Natural temperature cycles alone cannot explain ocean warming.
The UCS claims human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, have caused carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to rise significantly higher than at any time during the past 400,000 years.
Carbon dioxide, along with other heat-trapping emissions such as methane, acts like insulation in the lower atmosphere, warming land and ocean surface temperatures .As a result, sea temperatures have risen by almost one degree Fahrenheit since 1970.
Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures in the month of September have risen far above levels documented since 1930, the UCS said. This year, late August and September were the most devastating months for the Gulf States.
Rising temperatures are not going to go away on their own - it will take a concerted effort by all industrialized nations to come up with energy and manufacturing policies that can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to a Nov. 8 article in The Wall Street Journal, the International Energy Agency released a report Nov. 7 urging the United States and other industrialized nations to search for cleaner and more renewable sources of energy. In the report, the IEA warn that hydrocarbon emissions could rise by as much as 50 percent by 2030.
Hydrocarbons, which come mostly from burning oil and natural gas, are be linked by the UCS with global warming.
Clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power as well as nuclear energy, could reduce domestic use of dirty fuels like oil and natural gas and reduce global warming.
A proactive stance must be taken to combat global warming or else we can expect a repeat of this year's deadly and costly storm season.
- Matthew Moss, Copy Editor