RE: Global warming: a major factor in Rita and Katrina?

Robert Bazell: "Scientists say that one season, even like this one, cannot indicate anything about climate change. But those same measurements show that in the past 50 years, the oceans have warmed by one degree. That may not sound like much, but experts say it is a lot of energy. Indeed, recent studies show that worldwide, the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has doubled with that one-degree change, a source of worry."

Stephen Schneider, PH.D., Stanford University: "At the moment, we've only warmed up one. What happens when we warm up three or five, which is projected in the next several decades to the end of the century?"

Bazell: "Warming that many experts say results partly from humans releasing greenhouse gases, possibly creating even more violent storms in the future."

Actually, this scientist doesn't link the rise in ocean temp. to global warming. From what I've been reading, this activity in the gulf goes in cycles. It's just an act of Mother Nature... She wins every time.