Are the recent cyclones and droughts in Australia and elsewhere more evidence of global warming?
–Billy Hulkower, Los Angeles, CA Scientists cant blame individual storms or droughts on climate change, but many believe that human-induced global warming is increasing the severity and frequency of such weather anomalies. Indeed, on February 2, 2007 scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a long-awaited 21-page report confirming with 90 percent certainty that increases in man-made greenhouse gases since the mid-20th century are raising the planets temperature and destabilizing the climate. Besides hurricanes like Katrina that have affected the northern hemisphere, a number of high-impact tropical cyclones and typhoons have occurred around the world in just the last few years, with Australias mammoth Cyclone Larry topping the list in terms of intensity. That March 2006 storm battered the northern Queensland coast with 180 mile-per-hour winds, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and virtually wiping out Australias banana crop
