To many, the television coverage of Hurricane Sandy seemed like a doomsday movie. Cars flooded in water, lower Manhattan completely dark - the images were a haunting reminder of how even a city such as New York can be subdued by Mother Nature. This has people suddenly paying more attention to global warming and thinking, "Did human-induced climate change cause this?"
In a nutshell, no. In fact, most scientists warn against directly linking the global warming to the freak-hybrid storm Sandy. What they do seem to say is that the effects of global warming certainly might have exacerbated the effects of the storm, but probably didn't cause it.
"Would this kind of storm happen without climate change? Yes. Fueled by many factors. Is storm stronger because of climate change? Yes." Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund said to Bloomberg in the piece,"It's Global Warming, Stupid,"an article focused on how climate issues have been largely left out of this year's presidential race.
Hurricane Sandy is believed to have left 41 dead and almost $20 billion in damages in New York.
"Our climate is changing. While the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of (climate change), the risk that it might be - given this week's devastation - should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement on Thursday.
Numerous debates have sprung up in Hurricane Sandy's wake about the role global warming played in creating such a storm, but most seem to agree on at least one thing: climate change is serious, and politicians need to start addressing it.
In truth, what's lacking in America's approach to climate change is not the resources to act but the political will to do so," ended the Bloomberg article. "The U.S. can't afford regular Sandy-size disruptions in economic activity. To limit the costs of climate-related disasters, both politicians and the public need to accept how much they're helping to cause them."