Scientist Explains How Climate Change Means Stronger Hurricanes
Alex Wagner focused on the causes behind more intense hurricanes last night.
"There is only been nine Category 3 or higher storms that have made landfall on Florida's West Coast since 1950. Six of those have been since the year 2000," she said, noting it was hard to blame any one factor.
"But it is clearly the case that climate change is making storms like this one stronger. Joining us now is Katherine Heyhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, professor at Texas Tech university and author of this book, 'Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.'
"For people who are climate skeptics, how do you explain the role of climate change in a year like this?
"The way I explain it is like this, we know that hurricanes are a natural phenomenon. Climate change is exacerbating them, making them worse, like putting them on steroids," Heyhoe said.
"We aren't seeing a change in the overall numbers of hurricanes, but when those hurricanes happen they are intensified faster. They're getting stronger, they are dumping a lot more rain on us and they are even moving more slowly. Climate change is truly loading the weather dies against us, putting us all at risk."
Heyhoe said the rapid intensification of Hurricane Ian can be attributed to climate change.
"That is something that we are seeing with warmer oceans. Climate change is being caused by digging up and burning coal and gas and oil, which produces heat-trapping gases that are building up in the atmosphere around the planet," she said.