Isabel ringing?
"Environmentalists Blame East Coast Hurricane on 'Global Warming'" by Marc Morano is another example of how by using selective quoting and other trickery you can "prove" almost anything. By leaving out large parts of a press release from the Worldwatch Institute Marano makes it look like the organization blamed hurricane Isabel on global warming. For example, he writes that:
Citing "clear connections" that global warming and Hurricane Isabel are inter-related, Worldwatch stated, "Heat in the atmosphere is the fuel that leads to stormy weather, and meteorological studies indicate that rising temperatures will tend to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme storms, particularly the violent thunderstorms that occur in some parts of the world."
This is what the institute actually said:
Q. What does Hurricane Isabel have to do with global warming?
A. Although it is impossible to say that any individual storm is caused by global warming, there are clear connections. Heat in the atmosphere is the fuel that leads to stormy weather, and meteorological studies indicate that rising temperatures will tend to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme storms—particularly the violent thunderstorms that occur in some parts of the world. Hurricanes and cyclones are fueled by the warm tropical oceans, and as ocean temperatures increase, their intensity may increase as well. In addition, there are many other factors that contribute to hurricanes, and it is uncertain whether their number will rise due to global warming. However, rising sea levels, a certain result of global warming, will exacerbate the coastal flooding that is one of the most damaging impacts of hurricanes.
In addition to leaving out all the uncertainty in the Worldwatch release, Morano's article is extremely one-sided. He included statements from two long-time global warming "skeptics"Patrick J. Michaels and S. Fred Singer, and none from the overwhelming majority of scientists who favor global warming. (The article did not even include a link to the press release.) The "skeptics" trotted out the same old tired arguments. Singer is quoted as saying:
"There is dispute on [climate science]. The surface data show some warming, the satellite data do not, and that matter has not yet been resolved. So there is certainly no agreement on whether there is warming or not,"
Actually, according to the latest analysis the satellite data does show warming. .
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Written by Jim Norton
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