Hot seas make hurricanes very angry

HURRICANE BREEDING grounds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are being warmed by greenhouse gases, raising fears that more intense and devastating storms will be unleashed on nearby coastlines, scientists warned on Monday. 
Climate researchers found that emissions from burning fossil fuels and other industrial activities were to blame for driving temperatures upwards in tropical waters where hurricanes form. 

They predict warmer ocean waters will energize hurricanes and make them more powerful. If sea temperatures continue to rise, sci entists fear that category four and five hurricanes, such as Katrina, which battered New Orleans last summer, will become more commonplace. The scientists, led by Ben Santer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, used 22 climate models to investigate the possible causes of a rise in sea surface temperatures of up to 0.67 Celsius in the Atlantic and Pacific tropics from 1906 to 2005. 

Each computer model was run several times to work out how much sea surface temperatures would have warmed with and without rising levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. 

They found that tiny particulates from volcanoes and sulphates from industrial plants blocked the sun, and hence cooled the oceans. But the effect was swamped by the rise in greenhouse gases, which led to warmer oceans. The study appears in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Nathan Gillett, a co-author of the study at the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia, said: “We know the oceans have been warming in these regions and some scientists have said it was because of natural events. But this study confirms that it cannot be explained by a natural cycle." 

“The study suggests that with increasing sea surface temperatures, we can expect more intense hurricanes,” Dr Gillett added. Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist, claimed that while sea temperatures had increased by only about half a degree during the past 30 years, the power of hurricanes had doubled. Rising tempers Scientists discovered that increasing ocean temperatures will lead to devastating and intense storms on the coastlines While sea temperatures have increased by only about half a degree in the past 30 years, the power of hurricanes has doubled

*Source: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com, dated - Wednesday, September 13,2006.*