https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...gtype=Homepage
Well this starts out like you thought it would Global Warming.....
We often hear that climate change is influencing the frequency and strength of tropical storms, heat waves and wildfires, and this is certainly true, though it is too early to say what influence the warming temperatures may be having on Hurricane Florence. That answer must await a post-mortem by climate scientists. But it is also true that rapid coastal development is amplifying the impact of weather and climate events like Hurricane Hugo and those expected with Hurricane Florence over the next few days.
But wait, then some common sense take hold........
In fact, according to research by me and colleagues, the root cause of the country’s escalating number of weather- and climate-related disasters is not necessarily a rise in the
frequency or intensity of these events but the increasing exposure and vulnerability of populations that lie in their path.
That may seem obvious, though perhaps not for the people who have moved to places that are likely to end up disaster areas someday. That fact has either escaped their notice or seems to be of little consequence to them.
Later they add this........ There seems to be something of a “disaster amnesia” going on with respect to our land development practices after a calamity.
More than a decade ago, a group of leading climate experts felt compelled
to issue a statement saying the debate then about whether global warming was intensifying hurricanes was a distraction from “the main hurricane problem facing the United States.” The problem, they said, was the continued “lemming-like march to the sea” in the form of unabated coastal development in vulnerable places. “These demographic trends,”
they said, “are setting us up for rapidly increasing human and economic losses from hurricane disasters.”
We know much more about how the warming climate is influencing tropical storms. And in many places along the nation’s coastlines, the lemmings are still marching toward the sea.
So all in all I agree Man is causing weather related disasters to become worse........ Can't believe the NY Times printed this..... Maybe there is a sliver of hope.....