Welcome to the world as created (messed up) by mankind. Time for the grownups to fix the problem and stop the lies and distortions spewed from the oil coal and gas companies. They are the ONLY ones pushing the lie that this is ‘natural’ or that we can ‘adapt’.

If anything, the research strengthens the core claim of the article because Sandy is unlikely to meet the criteria for being easily attributable to climate change.

Wonderful piece of logic there.

1) As hansen’s recent study pointed out, it is very possible, to scientifically attribute certain weather events to climate change with an extremely high level of certainty.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/new-study-ties-global-warming-recent-year-heat

Essentially, if we drew a graph with the intensity of a weather event along the x axis, and the frequency of the weather events on the y-axis, we would get something like a bell curve. Climate change would shift the bell curve rightwards. What this means is that events with such high intensities that they were outside the original curve’s range of possibilities, but are nowossible (or go from impossibly unlikely to just very unlikely). If we experience a weather event of that nature, we can, with great certainty link that individual weather event to climate change. In fact, it would be scientifically disingenuous to dismiss Sandy as one of these, without further study.

2) Sandy cannot be seen in isolation. It must be seen in combination with Irene from last year too. We need to determine what the odds (and historical record) of 2 such storms occurring in consecutive years in this area are.

3) Uncertainty cuts both ways. Because we are less certain about the science of extreme weather events like Sandy doesn’t mean that it is likely to be less bad than the predictions. It is equally likely that the predictions are underestimating the number and intensity of weather events under a modified climate.

TBH, this article should not have seen the light of day in the 21st century. While we cannot as of now attribute Sandy to climate change, there are many physical and statistical mechanisms to link individual (or a group of) weather events to climate change, with very high degrees of certainty.