tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15306282.post114307970947655590..comments2023-11-03T02:18:41.733-07:00Comments on WattHead - Energy News and Commentary: Northeast Australia Hit by Category 5 CycloneJesse Jenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00297127385884430247noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15306282.post-1143411768948751412006-03-26T14:22:00.000-08:002006-03-26T14:22:00.000-08:00If you look at the work of Roger Pielke you'll fin...If you look at the work of Roger Pielke you'll find that there's no trend once you account for inflation, economic growth and increased population in vulnerable areas (that addresses Bob's point, you plot economic damage, not storms etc. themselves - if you instead asked how much would the storms of past years have cost insurers today, if they had happened today, you'll see a completely different story).<BR/><BR/>It's remarkable how much the population of hurricane prone coast stretches in the US has increased, while Maine's coast has had virtually static population over the last fifty years.<BR/><BR/>I draw diametrically opposite conclusions from yours. I think the evidence so far is that global warming will largely mean, well, warmer temperatures, and not more "extremes" (as in ="more catastrophes"). <BR/><BR/>How come that people are so keen on moving to Florida or Nevada? Supposedly the extreme temperatures of the desert and the hurricanes that come with high water temperatures are so terrible that people should hurry in their droves to North Dakota.<BR/><BR/>Instead it's the South, and particularly the hottest and most hurricane prone parts of the South, that's seen the biggest increases in population in the US.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I know that change in and of itself is a problem, particularly fast sea level changes.<BR/><BR/>I do think there's solid evidence that it'll get warmer, that there'll be more precipitation, more evaporation, slowly rising sea levels, more hurricanes (because of higher sea water temperatures), but possibly fewer mid latitude storms, and also smaller night/day, seasonal and pole/equator temperature differences.<BR/><BR/>What I don't think is that a few degrees warmer are that big a deal, or that the appropriate price for CO2 emissions should be much removed from 0.Heikohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839810379331430109noreply@blogger.com