One of the few benefits of having a degree in oceanography is that I sometimes understand what climate scientists are saying. As you doubtless know, there has been much yelling and screaming over whether the current significantly increased level of hurricane activity is a result of global warming, or whether the whole global warming thing is a nefarious invention of commie pinko gay satanist leftist conspirators. Well, a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims to have fairly conclusive proof that the rise in sea surface temperatures that is giving rise to the more vigorous hurricane formation is very likely to have been caused by human activity, specifically increased emission of greenhouses gases. Of course the scientists who wrote the paper are mainly based in California which doubtless proves that they are all leftist dupes.

More details here. Some one pass the message to Stan Robinson, please.

Update: Here’s the BBC’s take on the story, complete with a history of the controversy surrounding the question.