In a “lightly edited”* interview transcript with the Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein, Former Vice President and Nobel** Laureate Al Gore puts climate deniers on the same moral plane as supporters of slavery and apartheid. (Clear logical connection there, Mr. Vice-President.) Then Al disgorges this little chestnut of wisdom:
Would there be hurricanes and floods and droughts without man-made global warming? Of course. But they’re stronger now. The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6.
Al is referring to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale which rates hurricane wind destructive potential. Category 5, sustained winds greater than 157 mph, signifies total, catastrophic destruction. According to Wikipedia,
After the series of powerful storm systems of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, a few newspaper columnists and scientists brought up the suggestion of introducing Category 6, and they have suggested pegging Category 6 to storms with winds greater than 174 or 180 mph … Only a few storms of this category have been recorded.
According to Robert Simpson [one of the meterorologists responsible for the scale], there are no reasons for a Category 6 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale because it is designed to measure the potential damage of a hurricane to manmade structures.
Al would see eye-to-eye with rock legend Nigel Tufnel of the immortal band Spïnal Tap:
* Maybe Ezra should consider editing a little more heavily next time. The thing is full of typos, like “Exxon-Mobile” and “The consequences [of AGW] are now hard to escape. Every night on the news, it’s like a nature hike through the book of revelations (sic).”
** Nobel Peace Prize.
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