The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Warming temperatures could multiply Katrina-like hurricanes Posted: 19 Mar 2013 09:54 AM PDT
Scientists have long studied the relationship between warmer sea surface temperatures and cyclonic, slowly spinning storms in the Atlantic Ocean, but the new study attempts to project how many of the most damaging hurricanes could result from warming air temperatures as well. The extreme storms are highly sensitive to temperature changes, and the number of Katrina-magnitude events could double due to the increase in global temperatures that occurred in the 20th century, the researchers reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If temperatures continue to warm in the 21st century, as many climate scientists project, the number of Katrina-strength hurricanes could at least double, and possibly rise much more, with every 1.8 degree F (1 degree C) rise in global temperatures, the researchers said. Computer projections assessed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggest that global temperatures could rise by between 1.8 degrees and 10.8 degrees F (1 degree and 6 degrees C) by century's end. To figure out how many of the most extreme hurricanes these higher temperatures might spawn, Aslak Grinsted of the Centre for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen and his co-authors looked at storm surges, which are often the most damaging aspect of these monster storms. A storm surge is the abnormal rise in water, over and above normal high tide, pushed toward shore by the winds whipping around a big cyclonic storm. Much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, an estimated US$108 billion (RM346 billion), was caused by high storm surges across a wide area of the Gulf of Mexico coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Superstorm Sandy, which plowed into the northeastern US coast with hurricane-strength winds last year, cost an estimated US$75 billion, NOAA said. The researchers looked at storm surges going back to 1923, and related those to how warm air temperatures were when the surges occurred. Then, using computer models, they projected how storm surges might be influenced by future warming. Storm surges can be a more accurate gauge of a hurricane's severity than wind speed, like those on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, Grinsted said by phone from Denmark. "When people talk about (hurricane) intensity normally, then they mean wind speed," he said. "But that is not what is causing the most damage only. Sometimes it's about how fast it is traveling." He said that was the case with Sandy, which travelled so slowly and stretched over such a wide area that its impact was intense, even though wind speeds abated somewhat by landfall. Previous research on the link between climate change and hurricanes has suggested that there may be fewer hurricanes overall but more stronger ones as global temperatures rise. This study indicates there will be an increase of hurricanes of all magnitudes, but the increase will be greatest for the most extreme events. — Reuters |
| US Senate Finance chief wants trade promotion bill this year Posted: 19 Mar 2013 09:39 AM PDT
Baucus said he wanted to renew both trade promotion authority (TPA) and trade adjustment assistance (TAA), a federal program that provides funding to help retrain workers that have lost their jobs because of import competition or factories moving overseas. "TPA and TAA are two sides of the same coin making trade work. We need to renew and extend both of them this year," Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, said at a hearing of his committee on the White House's trade agenda. Acting US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis told Baucus the administration was ready to work with Congress to approve the legislation, as it attempts to wrap up trade talks in the Asia Pacific this year and launch new trade talks with the European Union in coming months. Trade promotion authority, also known as "fast track", allows the White House to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without any amendments. It is considered important to US trade negotiations as it assures other countries that any deal struck by the White House won't be picked apart by Congress. President Barack Obama did not try during his first four years in office to win approval of the legislation, although a recent report by the US Trade Representative's office said the administration was prepared to engage with Congress now. Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the finance committee, welcomed the administration's new commitment to pursue TPA. "I take this promise as a sign of progress but we have already wasted four years. TPA could have been done a long time ago. We can't afford to waste any more time," Hatch said. — Reuters |
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