Andrew Revkin, who usually blogs on climate issues, has been drawn in by the severe thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks. Below are excerpts from an early May post - today he addresses SPC products and yesterday's outbreak at his blog.
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May 3, 2011, 4:36 pm
In Tornado Zones, Seeking Shelter From the Storm
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
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It’s fine for Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research to say he feels “it is irresponsible not to mention climate change” when discussing tornado outbreaks. Everyone’s entitled to his or her view.
My response would be that it is irresponsible not to mention the need to reduce inherent and avoidable human vulnerability to tornadoes in the crowding South, particularly in low-income regions with flimsy housing. I saw barely a mention of these realities in recent posts by climate-oriented bloggers on the tornado outbreak.
The same issue has played out in discussions of hurricane trends in a warming world. In 2006, amid persistent scientific debate over the possible role of greenhouse-driven warming in shaping hurricane patterns, 10 leading researchers in the field issued a single statement on vulnerability.
Ten climate experts who are sharply divided over whether global warming is intensifying hurricanes say that this question…. is a distraction from “the main hurricane problem facing the United States.”
That problem, the experts said yesterday in a statement, is an ongoing “lemming-like march to the sea” in the form of unabated coastal development in vulnerable places, and in the lack of changes in government policies and corporate and individual behavior that are driving the trend.
Statement is at: http://wind.mit.edu/~emanuel/Hurricane_threat.htm
Revkin’s blog is at: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/
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