Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Philippine Hurricane and Global Warming

Most of us are familiar with the recent typhoon in the Philippines with resultant tremendous death and property damage. A typhoon is another name for hurricane, and both are categorized as cyclones. A typhoon/hurricane differs from a tornado only in size. A typhoon/hurricane may cover an area of several thousand square miles, while a tornado is usually limited to an area of about ten square miles. The intensity of the two types of storms is measured by maximum wind speed or minimum internal pressure.
United Nations (UN) head Ban Ki-moon says the Philippine typhoon, named Haiyan, was due to climate change. He was quoted as saying, "We have seen now what has happened in the Philippines. It is an urgent warning. An example of changed weather and how climate change is affecting all of us on Earth."
Recall that the UN position on climate change, previously called global warming, results from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, which is presently at a level of 350 ppm. It is also claimed that an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration results from burning carbon containing fuels.
Many have said that Typhoon Haiyan was one of the strongest ever. However, historical records show that Haiyan is the 58th Super Typhoon since 1950 to reach a central pressure of 900 mb or lower. 
There have been 35 cyclones in the last 800 years that have killed more than 10,000 people. Thirty-three occurred with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration below 350 PPM.
Ninety four per cent of the deadliest cyclones occurred with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration below 350 ppm. The worst ones happened during the 1970 global cooling era.
We also have some long-term archaeological data concerning atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperatures during various interglacial periods. An interglacial period is 10,000 to 15,000 years long. According to ice core analysis, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations during all four prior interglacial periods of the earth's history never rose above approximately 290 ppm. Today the atmospheric CO2 concentration stands at nearly 390 ppm. The present interglacial temperature is about 2°C colder than the previous interglacial temperature, even though the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration now is about 100 ppm higher. 

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