White House Said to Bar Hurricane Report
David Farber <[email protected]>
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Begin forwarded message: From: "Robert J. Berger" <[email protected]> Date: September 26, 2006 8:14:18 PM EDT To: Dewayne Hendricks <[email protected]>, David Farber <[email protected]> Subject: White House Said to Bar Hurricane Report White House Said to Bar Hurricane Report http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8KCPSL00.html By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer September 26,2006 | WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- part of the Commerce Department -- in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes. According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect. In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported. Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said he had no details of the report. NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue. However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements. A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea- surface temperatures. <snip> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC. Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868 http://www.ibd.com