Where has Gelbspan's article in the Globe 'been widely criticized' in 
as much as it was published on Tuesday?

Two recent papers in Science, which unlike Discover is a peer-reviewed 
technical journal, certainly seem to support the connection:

'Recent extreme events such as the devastating 2003 European summer 
heat wave raise important questions about the possible causes of any 
underlying trends, or low-frequency variations, in regional climates. 
Here, we present new evidence that basin-scale changes in the Atlantic 
Ocean, probably related to the thermohaline circulation, have been an 
important driver of multidecadal variations in the summertime climate 
of both North America and western Europe. Our findings advance 
understanding of past climate changes and also have implications for 
decadal climate predictions.' [Sutton and Hudson, 'Atlantic Ocean 
Forcing of North American and European Summer Climate', 1 July 2005.]

'Thus, although variability is large, trends associated with human 
influences are evident in the environment in which hurricanes form, and 
our physical understanding suggests that the intensity of and rainfalls 
from hurricanes are probably increasing, even if this increase cannot 
yet be proven with a formal statistical test. Model results suggest a 
shift in hurricane intensities toward extreme hurricanes.' [Trenbath, 
Kevin. 'Uncertainly in Hurricanes and Global Warming', Science, v308 
n5729. 17 June 2005.]

And in fact many other climatologists (as distinct from meteorologists) 
have published (again, this would be in Science and other technical 
journals, not in Discover or on Fox News) on the connection between 
ocean warming, climate change and intense weather activity. In Science, 
you might see also, Knutson, Tuleya, and Kurihara, 'Simulated Increase 
of Hurricane Intensities in a CO2-Warmed Climate', 18 Feb 1998; 
Levitus, Antonov, Boyer, and Stephens, 'Warming of the World Ocean', 24 
March 2000.

There are others, you might do some research.

Museums should do a better job educating the public. Their exhibit 
developers should try to take care of themselves.

-L.D.



On Sep 1, 2005, at 8:19 AM, Eugene Dillenburg wrote:

> Gelbspan's article has been widely criticized for a lack of fidelity 
> to the
> facts.  There was no two-foot snowfall in LA this year.  (There was 
> snow in
> the mountains, where it belongs.)  There was no 42-inch snow storm in 
> Boston
> in January -- rather, that was the total (more or less) for the entire 
> month.
>
> More to the point, meteorologists see little connection between global
> warming and Katrina in particular, or hurricanes in general.  The 
> current
> issue of Discover magazine carries an interview with Dr. William Gray, 
> in
> which he explains it as a natural cycle.
>
> http://www.discover.com/issues/sep-05/departments/discover-dialogue/
>
> (Gray was also interviewed recently by the NY Times, but their links 
> require
> registration.)
>
> Perhaps even more to the point, global warming is about averages and 
> trends,
> and is neither proven nor disproven by single events.
>
> No doubt about it, global warming is real, and museums must do a 
> better job
> of educating the public.  But that education needs to be based on 
> facts,
> rather than hysteria.
>
> Eugene Dillenburg
>
> =========================================================

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