Friday, June 02, 2006

Bush gets interested in climate change?


Apparently climate change might be a big threat to Florida. Two researchers say that warming is causing a long-term increase in the number of bad storms experienced by the state. They say that warming of the ocean by 1 degree Farenheit since 1970 has doubled the number of Category 4 or 5 hurricanes.

There's lots of debate (as usual with the climate change issue) about whether they're right - some say that the region is experiencing a natural upswing in the number of bad storms, and that climate change isn't a factor.

A reason this might be news is that the state Governor met to talk with the researchers, and Bush has even commented on their results (apparently he thinks they are "compelling". I'm sure he's experienced in critical thinking about approaches to hurricane modelling and can tell whether their research is any good).

Maybe Bush will pay attention. After all, he owes Florida and its hanging chads bigtime.

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