White House Said to Bar Hurricane Report

[theski]

Classic.. must be the War on Weather..

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - part of the Commerce Department - in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.

According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.

In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.

Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said he had no details of the report.

NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.

However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.

A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.

Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.

Not all agree, however, with opponents arguing that many other factors affect storms, which can increase and decrease in cycles.

The possibility of global warming affecting hurricanes is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.

In February, a NASA political appointee who worked in the space agency's public relations department resigned after reportedly trying to restrict access to Jim Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who has been active in global warming research.

AP

[Patrick Degan]

Remember kids, global warming doesn't exist. Rush and the GOP say so. Believing otherwise helps the terrorists.

[Flagg]

Remember kids, global warming doesn't exist. Rush and the GOP say so. Believing otherwise helps the terrorists.

No, Global Warming is real, it just isn't science. In reality it's signifying the coming rapture. You see, it's getting hotter because the devil is really hot, and he's getting closer to the surface!

[Vaporous]

I find it difficult to be anything but bemused at this. It isn't like they haven't done this before, and worse. It's just another circle around the drain.

[FSTargetDrone]

In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.

So this is to be "less technical"? Hm. For a moment, I thought, "Well, of course, George The Lesser needs to be able to follow it."

But then I remind myself that this report will never cross his desk.

In any case, I am hoping for a leak.

[K. A. Pital]

What is this? Censorship of science by morons who barely even can spell the bloody word?

[Spyder]

"Discussion of the relationship between global warming and increased hurricane activity is nothing but abject defeatism and only serves to boost the morale of enemy hurricanes."