A good rundown of the Sandy-climate change connection from Skeptical Science:
Loading the Dice:
- Humans increased the greenhouse effect.
- The greenhouse effect caused the planet to warm.
- The warming planet caused land ice to melt and the oceans to expand.
- Melting land ice and thermal expansion caused average sea level to rise.
- Higher sea level made the storm surge worse than it would have been in the past, thus causing more flooding.
- A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor.
- This allows hurricanes to pull more moisture from the atmosphere.
- More rainfall during the hurricane causes more widespread flooding.
- Warmer oceans feed stronger hurricanes.
Gillis:
While it’s impossible to say how this scenario might have unfolded if sea-ice had been as extensive as it was in the 1980s, the situation at hand is completely consistent with what I’d expect to see happen more often as a result of unabated warming and especially the amplification of that warming in the Arctic…
Roberts:
There is no division, in the physical world, between “climate change storms” and “non-climate change storms.” Climate change is not an exogenous force acting on the atmosphere. There is only the atmosphere, changing. Everything that happens in a changed atmosphere is “caused” by the atmosphere, even if it’s within the range of historical variability.
Lewandowsky:
Nearly all weather events now have a contribution from climate change and it is up to us to manage and reduce that risk with mitigative action.
Think about places in the world that have 1/1000th the adaptive capacity as NYC.
And if you feel like punching yourself in the face tonight:
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