My understanding is that people believe higher ocean temperatures aren't making hurricanes more common, but they are making them more intense. Hurricane Katrina was a very intense storm, which killed some 1,500 people just in the short term, and I'm guessing it caused unmeasured lingering health damage. To anyone who lived (or died) in New Orleans at the time, it was devastating. But to be hard-nosed about, that's not a lot of deaths compared to - say - the 40,000 caused by car crashes or maybe 300,000 caused by smoking each year.
I'm curious- did you have a similar reaction to Hurricaine Katrina? I remember conversations about worsening natural disasters at that time, too.
My understanding is that people believe higher ocean temperatures aren't making hurricanes more common, but they are making them more intense. Hurricane Katrina was a very intense storm, which killed some 1,500 people just in the short term, and I'm guessing it caused unmeasured lingering health damage. To anyone who lived (or died) in New Orleans at the time, it was devastating. But to be hard-nosed about, that's not a lot of deaths compared to - say - the 40,000 caused by car crashes or maybe 300,000 caused by smoking each year.
It's frustrating to think that we could've paid attention much, much sooner.