Gore Blames Myanmar Cyclone on Global Warming

It took no time at all for Al Gore to blame the cyclone that all but leveled parts of Myanmar, once known as Burma, on global warming, a phenomenon that some experts argue stopped ten years ago. According to the Business & Media Institute, Gore said the storm was an example of "consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming."

Appearing on NPR’s May 6 “Fresh Air” broadcast, Gore told host Terry Gross: “And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,” Gore said.

Gore added, “And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.”

Claiming that global warming is forcing ocean temperatures to rise, which is causing storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, to intensify, Gore said: “It’s also important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientists is although any individual storm can’t be linked singularly to global warming – we’ve always had hurricanes.”

Gore added, “Nevertheless, the trend toward more Category 5 storms – the larger ones and trend toward stronger and more destructive storms -- appears to be linked to global warming and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful.”

In October 2007, the Institute's Jeff Poor recalled, CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano disputed Gore’s claim that there is a strong correlation between intense storms and global warming. He explained that “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we've seen,” pointing out that “by the end of this century we might get about a 5-percent increase."