Is there a link between global warming and the rising intensity of natural disasters?

Set as news: False

Set as news: True

Set as news: True

Set as news: True

i think this issue presumes that natural disasters are rising in intensity... not sure if that's accepted by everyone.

Doesn't this wording contain the assumption that the intensity of natural disasters is "rising"?

How about,

"Are natural disasters intensifying due to global warming?"

(or "...due to climate change?")

That can include "no" stands that say "no, natural disasters aren't intensifying at all."

i think we should change it from 'global warming' to 'climate change' but not enough to hold up the issue. I don't think it will be a huge deal.

Time: Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina?

But its that meteorological arcana thats made such a mess of the bayou, and to hear a lot of people tell it, we have only ourselves—and our global-warming ways—to blame.

I propose an alternate position:

Yes

No

Inconclusive

A guy at USAToday said this:

Roger Pielke Jr., who studies the social impacts of natural disasters and climate change at the University of Colorado, said any link between the intensity of Katrina and other recent hurricanes and global warming is "premature." Most forecasts suggest climate change would increase hurricane wind speeds by 5% or less later in this century.

Amy Goodman

Fires rage through Southern California. Massive rainstorms drench New Orleans. The Southeast U.S., stretching from Tennessee across the Carolinas and into Georgia, is in the midst of what could be the worst drought on record there. While the media do an admirable job bringing us live images of extreme weather, it doesn't explain why those events are happening.

What links these crises? Global warming. Two words that have all too often been vacuumed off government Web sites and erased from government scientific studies.

Excellent.

Is there a link between global warming and the rising intensity of natural disasters?

issue prior to revisions:

what about:

Has climate change affected weather patterns?

Did anyone hear that rain last night?  Man, that was extreme! 

i think asking it this way is assuming we are experiencing extreme weather.  some people would disagree.

I was just reading something Laurie David wrote about how "extreme weather" (heat waves, tornados, wildfires, etc.) is becoming the norm.  She asks if global warming is linked to this crazy weather.  Is it feeding it?

issue prior to revisions: