Regarding the NOAA article I posted:
But, in seriousness, I still don't think it contradicts the basic point. NOAA is unwilling to commit to a causation without a smoking gun. I get that. Despite some ridiculous criticisim they took a few years ago on a scandal that never happened, I have a lot of respect for them as an organization and their insistence on absolute facts to support their positions. Unfortuantely, absolute facts are hard to come by in science.
But, what we do know, unequivocally, is that the planet is warming, oceans are rising, ocean temperatures ar rising, and hurricans feed off warmer water. Saying we don't have near certainty on the connection and we've only got causal evidence is not the same as saying there is not overwhelming evidence to support the proposition.
There have always been hurricans, nor'easters, typhoons, etc. But, they are showing up with increased ferocity year on year. How deep in the sand does someone have to bury their head to not see something is going on here. Growing up within 20 miles of the Jersey Shore, I remember as a kid hurricans coming up from the Florida and the Carolinas. By the time they hit NJ they were generally tropical storms and just dumped a lot of rain on us. On rate occassions we would get a Cat 1 storm roll in, which would slow down as soon as it hit land. We never got these massive storms like NJ has been hit with the past few years. And look at the storms hitting the gulf states and the southeastern US. They always got crushed by a big storm from time to time. It was not unheard of for a big storm to come in here and there. But, we are seeing them year after year now. We had 3 major ones last year.
Scientists may not be able to accurately predict the future, and there is always going to be some guess work as to what comes next. But, in terms of what is happening, I can't believe there is still a debate about it. And, as for dad's standard answer of it doesn't matter because we can't afford to do anything about it, my retort is "how much is this costing us"? The cost of repairs and clean up after the 2017 storms was billions. the total cost for the Atlantic hurricans was $282 billion (but that is not exclusive to damage done in the US - I'm not sure of the US total). Point is, it is rapidly getting to a point where we can't afford not to take it seriously.
