Rezar a Santa Bárbara

Kerry Emanuel é um reputado professor de meteorologia no MIT, autor do “Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes”. Em Julho publicou na Revista Nature um artigo onde defende que os furacões têm-se tornado significativamente mais poderosos e destrutivos nas últimas três décadas, em parte devido ao aquecimento global. "My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in [hurricanes'] destructive potential, and--taking into account an increasing coastal population--a substantial increase in hurricane”.
Podem consultar outras notícias sobre este autor e o Katrina nas seguintes fontes:
"The temperature of the tropic oceans is warmer than it's been in 150 years." (USA Today)

"If you consider hurricanes over their entire life, and not just when they make landfall, you really do see an upward trend in the power of hurricanes--not in their frequency--but in the magnitude of the wind speed and also in their duration." National Public Radio

"What has everybody in my profession so concerned--and we've been concerned for decades--is the confluence of a huge upsurge in the coastal population with a natural upswing in the number of storms in the Atlantic." Living on Earth
"Hurricanes have killed more people worldwide in the last 50 years than any other natural cataclysm." -- Kerry Emanuel, in the preface to his new book on hurricanes. Houston Chronicle

Muitos outros cientistas defendem esta relação. Hoje, Nicholas Kristof do NY Times, citando o trabalho de Kerry Emanuel interroga-se sobre a próxima tempestade.
E diz:
“True, we don't know whether Katrina was linked to global warming. But there are indications that global warming will produce more Category 5 hurricanes. Now that we've all seen what a Katrina can do - and Katrina was only Category 4 when it hit Louisiana - it would be crazy for President Bush to continue to refuse to develop a national policy on greenhouse gases.(….)
With corpses on the streets of New Orleans, we may have seen a glimpse of the future of climate change. Let's hope it shakes Mr. Bush out of his complacency. “

Mas como era previsível, a direita portuguesa, acha que o Katrina e Quioto não têm qualquer relação. Por todo lado, entre blogs e opinião na imprensa, desconsidera-se este elo científico. Rezem, então, a Santa Bárbara.