Wake-up call for 'loonies'
2005-09-24 19:54
London - Super-powerful hurricanes now hitting the United States are the "smoking gun" of global warming, one of Britain's leading scientists has said.
Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental pollution, told the Independent on Friday that the growing violence of storms such as Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans, and Rita, now threatening Texas, was "very probably" caused by climate change.
"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming," he said in an interview published on Friday.
Lawton hit out at "neo-conservatives" in the United States who were still denying the "reality of climate change".
Referring to the arrival of Hurricane Rita he said: "If this makes the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation."
Asked what conclusion the Bush administration should draw from two hurricanes of such high intensity hitting the US in quick succession, Lawton said: "If what looks like is going to be a horrible mess causes the extreme sceptics about climate change in the US to reconsider their opinion, that would be an extremely valuable outcome."
Asked about characterising them as "loonies", he said: "There are a group of people in various parts of the world ... who simply don't want to accept human activities can change climate and are changing the climate. I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer." - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA