Hurricane Irene: Is Climate Change To Blame?

07:07

August 29, 2011

Waves roll ashore in Scituate, Mass. as Tropical Storm Irene moves through the area, Sunday. (AP )

Despite Hurricane Irene's relatively tame landfall here in Massachusetts, meteorologists predict that the storm may have been the prelude to a dangerous late-Hurricane season for the Northeast.

Considering the rarity of serious hurricanes or tropical storms in our part of the country, it's hard not to wonder: is climate change to blame? Hurricanes and global warming are not easily separated, but scientists are divided on whether one causes the other.

Leading scholar on weather and climate change, MIT Professor Kerry Emanuel says that hurricanes have indeed grown more frequent and more destructive over the past three decades due to global climate change.

Guest:

Kerry Emanuel, professor, Atmospheric Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This segment aired on August 29, 2011.