And Science Takes A Big Jump Backwards

Bush briefed on global warming's impact on storms

Officials tracking the approach of the peak hurricane season told President Bush on Monday that data linking a series of devastating storms to global warming was inconclusive.

Eleven months after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, Bush visited the National Hurricane Center in Florida, a state often battered by hurricanes.

Showing Bush the maps and other devices used to predict storms, Max Mayfield, the hurricane center's director, said one question he is asked often is whether the powerful hurricanes of the past few years, like Katrina, Rita and Wilma, were the result of the earth's warming.

A scientist at the center, Christopher Landsea, told Bush there was "not a consensus" linking the two.