Foresight Beyond Hurricane Katrina
                                                                                                                              

Questions and Answers are cited below as

"Q" and "A"

1. Q: To what sight beyond Hurricane Katrina am I referring?

A: To the expected future hurricane and related elements.

2. Q: Where do you find this?

A: In part, in Nicholas D. Kristof's "The Storm Next Time," New York Times, Op-Ed, Sunday, September 11, 2005.

3. Q: What are some of the anticipated results?

A: Tackle global warming.

"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 have 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."

4. Q: What are some of the likely results if the President addresses the real coming problems of global warming?

A: "The available scientific evidence indicates that it is likely that global warming will make - and possibly already is making - those hurricanes that form more destructive than they otherwise would have been," declares an analysis by five climate scientists at www.realclimate.org."

5. Q: Where does the hurricane power come from?

A: "Hurricanes derive their power in part from warm water, and so forecasting models show future hurricanes becoming more severe as sea surface temperatures rise. One summary of 1,200 simulations published in the Journal of Climate last year showed that rising levels of greenhouse gases could triple the number of Category 5 hurricanes."

6. Q: What does science say about hurricanes and global warming?

A: ". . . [H]urricanes have already become more intense (but not more frequent). . . a new study by Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane guru at M.I.T., indicating that by one measure hurricanes have almost doubled in intensity over the last 30 years. The large upswing in the last decade is unprecedented, and probably reflects the effect of global warming."

Kerry Emanuel adds:

"My results suggest that future warming may lead to . . . substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century."

7. Q: Are there any further foreseeable results of "global warming"?

A: Yes.

"Global warming also produces hurricanes more destructive by raising the sea level. One Environmental Protection Agency study foresees a one-foot rise in sea levels on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts by 2050 and a two-foot (and possibly four-foot) rise by 2100."

8. Q: What are the foreseeable results?

A: "A two-foot rise would swallow a chunk of the United States bigger than Massachusetts, according to the E.P.A., and would also result in much more coastal flooding. One study by FEMA found that just a one-foot rise in sea levels would increase flood damage by 36 to 58 percent -underscoring that we need to bolster coastal protections as well as curb carbon emissions."

9. Q: What is Mr. Bush's response?

A: "So far, Mr. Bush has resisted serious action on global warming on the basis that strong measures ëwould have wrecked our economy.' "

10. Q: Are there any other even more serious probable results of "global warming"?

A: Very possibly, yes.

We have substantial evidence of warming of the Arctic ice and snow, probably future similar warming of the Antarctic ice and snow.

11. Q: What are the possible results?

A: A very large additional rise in the level of the oceans?

12. Q: What are the probable results of that?

A: That rise means loss of huge surfaces of the earth worldwide, if not controlled in time.

* * *

cc: George W. Bush, President
George H.W. Bush, Former President
Richard Cheney, Vice President
John Kerry, Senator
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Colonel Oliver North
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security
Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain
Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary
Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
His Excellency Daniel Ayalon Ambassador of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, Economy Minister for the Israeli Government
Israel's "Women In Green"
National Unity Coalition for Israel
Arianna Huffington, Syndicated Columnist
Yohanan Ramati, Chairman, Jerusalem
Institute for Western Defense
Gerardo Joffe, FLAME (Facts & Logic About the Middle East)
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief - US News and World Report
Time Magazine
Washington Post - Attn: Bob Woodward
International Jerusalem Post
The Weekly Standard - Bill Kristol, Editor
The Wall Street Journal - Editorial and Op-Ed Department
The New York Times, Op-Ed Department
Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Department
Dr. and Mrs. Jordan Phillips, Medical Books for China International
MoveOn PAC/www.MoveonPac.Org.
Richard Miniter, Author: Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror