Experts: Global warming behind 2005 hurricanes

Wednesday, April 26, 2006; Posted: 7:17 a.m. EDT (11:17 GMT)

Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane in 77 years.

MONTEREY, California (Reuters) -- The record Atlantic hurricane season last year can be attributed to global warming, several top experts, including a leading U.S. government storm researcher, said on Monday.

"The hurricanes we are seeing are indeed a direct result of climate change and it's no longer something we'll see in the future, it's happening now," said Greg Holland, a division director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Holland told a packed hall at the American Meteorological Society's 27th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology that the wind and warmer water conditions that fuel storms that form in the Caribbean are "increasingly due to greenhouse gases. There seems to be no other conclusion you can logically draw."More...

Mr. Bush has squandered the past fivee and a half years by avoiding climate policy aimed at retarding global warming. We are now about to pay an awful price for his intransigence.