Myanmar Cyclone and Global Warming

Continuing my coverage of what I can only describe as natural disaster week, we now have the tragedy that has occurred in Myanmar. With a death toll that could exceed 100,000, the cleanup promises to be long and painful. Amidst all this death and destruction we have Al Gore, self proclaimed deity of weather, and messiah of the new faith, taking this opportunity to push his beliefs on the rest of us. During an interview on May 6^th on NPRs' Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross, Al Gore made the incredible leap that what happened in Myanmar was a direct consequence of global warming. "And as we're talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated" Gore remarked. "And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China-and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming." I don't mean to be picky but I believe the catch word in that last sentence is might. Gore went on to explain that it was global warming that was affecting ocean temperatures, and thus causing these destructive storms to manifest. "It's also important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientist is although any individual storm can't be linked singularly to global warming-we've always had hurricanes," that's an interesting admission from the prophet of climate change. "Nevertheless, the trend toward more Category 5 storms – the larger ones and trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appear to be linked to global warming and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful." So it appears to Al Gore and the climate scientist that there's a connection between global warming and severe storms. I'm sorry but when you use words such as might, or appear, to explain a hypothesis to me it sounds very noncommittal. Also throughout that entire statement I might add, Al Gore failed to make one connection between Human activity and global warming as it relates to these severe storms. Even CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, one of the few meteorologist not silenced by the eco – Nazi's, disputed the claim in October 2007 of any correlation between recent severe storms and global warming.