PARIS - Global warming has made stronger hurricanes, including those in the 
Atlantic such as Katrina, an authoritative panel on climate change has concluded 
for the first time, participants in the deliberations said Thursday. 
 
 
   Scientists from around the world gathered in Paris, Monday 
 Jan. 29, 2007 to finalize an authoritative report on climate change, 
 expected to be a grim warning of rising temperatures and sea levels 
 worldwide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to unveil its 
 latest assessment of the environmental threat posed by global warming on 
 Friday. [AP]
   | 
During marathon meetings in Paris, the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change approved language that said an increase in hurricane and tropical 
cyclone strength since 1970 "more likely than not" can be attributed to man-made 
global warming, according to Leonard Fields of Barbados and Cedric Nelom of 
Surinam.
In its last report in 2001, the same panel had said there was not enough 
evidence to make such a conclusion.
"It is very important" that the language is so strong this time, said Fields, 
whose country is on the path of many hurricanes. "Insurance companies watch the 
language, too."
The panel did note that the increase in stronger storms differs in various 
parts of the globe, but that the storms that strike the Americas are global 
warming-influenced, according to another participant.
Fields said that the report notes that most of the changes have been seen in 
the North Atlantic.
The report — scheduled to be released Friday morning — is also a marked 
departure from a November 2006 statement by the World Meteorological 
Organization, which helped found the IPPC.
The meteorological organization, after contentious debate, said it could not 
link past stronger storms to global warming. The debate about whether stronger 
hurricanes can be linked to global warming has been dividing a scientific 
community that is otherwise largely united in agreeing that global warming is 
human-made and a problem.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Kerry Emanuel, who pioneered 
much of the research linking global warming to an uptick in hurricane strength, 
looked at the original language in an IPCC draft and called it "a pretty strong 
statement."
"I think we've seen a pretty clear signal in the Atlantic," Emanuel said. The 
increase in Atlantic hurricane strength "is so beautifully correlated with sea 
surface there can't be much doubt that there's a relationship with sea surface 
temperature."
But U.S. National Hurricane Center scientist Christopher Landsea has long 
disagreed with that premise. While he would not comment on the IPCC decision, 
Landsea pointed to the meteorological organization's statement last 
fall.