Posted on 08/31/2005 10:34:34 AM PDT by truthandlife
Germany's environment minister has added his voice to green activists and others who have sought to link Hurricane Katrina with global warming.
"The increasing frequency of these natural events can only be explained through global warming which is caused by people," Juergen Trittin told the ZDF television network.
Trittin, a member of the Green Party in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition, was also quoted by the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper as criticizing the Bush administration for doing little to fight climate change.
Germany is a strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that came into force last February. The pact requires industrialized nations to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for climate change by specified amounts.
Washington rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which President Bush said would damage the U.S. economy. Other critics note the treaty excludes major developing nations and polluters such as China and India.
Frankfurter Rundschau quoted Trittin as accusing the U.S. of closing its eyes to the "emergency" of global warming, even as the average American was responsible for twice as much CO2 as the average European.
"The Bush government rejects international climate protection goals by insisting that imposing them would negatively impact the American economy," he said.
"The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies."
Others who have linked the devastating hurricane to global warming include environment journalist and author Ross Gelbspan -- in a Boston Globe op-ed piece Tuesday'; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wrote that Katrina was "giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children."
An editorial on the website of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle stated Wednesday: "Even as the damage caused by hurricane Katrina in the US is assessed, the reason for its brutality is already known -- global warming."
A month ago the U.S. joined Australia -- which also opposes Kyoto -- as well as Japan, India, China and South Korea in launching a new Asia-Pacific partnership aimed at finding ways to combat climate change outside the framework of Kyoto, while meeting the growing energy needs of the world's most populous regions.
Last week, a New Zealand business grouping urged the New Zealand government -- like Germany, a devoted Kyoto supporter -- to consider dropping out of the treaty in 2008, joining the new Asia-Pacific partnership instead.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association noted the New Zealand government's acknowledgement earlier this year that meeting the country's emission-reduction targets set by Kyoto would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more than predicted.
"Every Social Problem of The Last 60 Years Caused or Exacerbated By Liberals or Socialists: Left Not Deterred"
- Keen Observer
The Germans have suffered long enough. I'll celebrate by visiting a local German-American pub with satellite German TV.
Let's review:
Natural events....caused by people?
One of the nation's foremost hurricane experts, William Gray, points out that if global warming is at work, cyclones should be increasing not just in the Atlantic but elsewhere, in the West Pacific, East Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. They aren't. The number of cyclones per year worldwide fluctuates pretty steadily between 80 and 100. There's actually been a small overall decline in tropical cyclones since 1995, and Atlantic hurricanes declined from 1970 to 1994, even as the globe was heating up.
It seems that Atlantic hurricanes come in spurts, or as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it in more technical language, "a quasi-cyclic multi-decade regime that alternates between active and quiet phases." The late 1920s through the 1960s were active; the 1970s to early 1990s quiet; and since 1995 — as anyone living in Florida or Gulfport, Miss., can tell you — seems to be another active phase. ...
Indeed, if you adjust for population growth and skyrocketing property values, hurricanes don't appear to be any more destructive today. According to the work of Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado, of the top five most destructive storms this century, only one occurred after 1950 — Hurricane Andrew in 1992. An NOAA analysis says there have been fewer Category 4 storms throughout the past 35 years than would have been expected given 20th-century averages
from www.captainsquartersblog.com
You have that in your area? Nice! You must live in one of the old thirteen states?
Please don't confuse us with logic, Pappy. :-)
- "Bush's fault" (for not signing the Kyoto Treaty)
- "God's wrath" (punishing us for various transgressions)
Should Germans be alluding to getting rid of some people to solve a problem?
Ah, yes, the old global warning bullcrap. Don't these idiots know that our earth goes in cycles regarding weather, warming, whatever? Cheez. Anything they can blame on America and Bush, they will. Stifle, Germany! And France, too, while we're at it. Oh, and when are you sending aid to America????
Have you read Robert(?) Kennedy Jr.'s rant? He's blaming Bush and everyone else. What a tool.
I see a case of wishful thinking.
Norway has a good one, too, dumpoppen (at least that's how it sounds. Spelling? not so sure).
Michael Savage has been speculating on how long it would take before Bush was blamed for Katrina.
My other favorite talk show host, Brian Sussman (KSFO AM650), was formerly a TV meteorologist and had an interesting argument regarding global warming. The planet is actually colder now than 1000 years ago, as evidenced by the Vikings growing grapes in Greenland and North America.
"Finally it has been speculated that grapes did in fact grow in the area in the past, but not anymore due to climactic changes. But while it may indeed have been warm enough for grapes to grow further north than in present times, it is unlikely that they were able to grow as north as Newfoundland."
Apparently, we are emerging from a "mini ice age" that started in around 900AD and lasted into the mid 1800's.
Hmm, would they be the naturalists?
And wher did this loon get his degree in climatology or meterology?????
Yeah, President Bush controls the weather. It took 5 years but he's got it down now... DUh .....
Oh sure. Our colony in America. :-)
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