Dan Sarewitz and I have an op-ed on hurricanes, climate change and disasters in today’s Los Angeles Times. Here is the opening:

“LIKE A BAD horror movie in which the villain keeps coming back, Hurricane Rita, the 18th storm of the season, is spinning toward an inevitable rendezvous with the Gulf Coast. We’ve already seen more death and destruction than the last 35 hurricane seasons combined. And many people, including some European and U.S. politicians, are hoping that the carnage – represented most poignantly by the destruction in New Orleans – will help bring this country to its senses on dealing with global warming.

But understanding what this hurricane season is really telling us about why we’re so vulnerable to climate-related catastrophes means facing up to an unavoidable fact: Efforts to slow global warming will have no discernible effect on hurricanes for the foreseeable future. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adequately preparing for future disasters are essentially separate problems.”

Read the whole thing here.