Professors blame global warming for Hurricane Sandy on Twitter

Immediately after Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast on Monday, professors from around the country turned to Twitter to place blame on man-made global warming for the storm’s size and impact.

Professor Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University, for example, tweeted about “at least 3 ways climate change has made #Sandy worse.”

She argued that a rise in sea level and ocean temperatures significantly contributed to the storm’s intensity.

Hayhoe also suggested the storms path to melting ice caps in the Arctic. “2012 record Arctic sea ice loss” is responsible for “steering #sandy into the coast instead of out to sea,” she tweeted.

Professor Michael Mann of Penn State University tweeted: “Climate change [is] playing [a] role.” He contended that “record ocean warmth” was “feed[ing] these storms with energy and moisture.”

Another professor, Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona, even claimed it would be “misleading” to discuss the storm and “not mention the contribution of Anthro GW.”

Moreover, Overpeck warned that global warming “prob[ably] will fuel bigger storms” unless it is “stopped soon.”

However, despite most professors placing blame for Hurricane Sandy on climate change, others disputed the charges.

Roger Pielke Jr., Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, maintained that “large, damaging storms are not unprecedented in late October.”

The professor, who is also critical of the theory of man-made global warming, attacked those who are using Hurricane Sandy to make political points.

“Using Hurricane Sandy to focus policy debate on carbon emissions is just like Dick Cheney using 9/11 to focus policy debate on invading Iraq,” he tweeted.