NOAA: Hurricane frequency and global warming NOT the cause of increased destruction

From a NOAA press release that came out to me via email just minutes ago:

—– Original Message —–

From: “NOAA News Releases” <Press.Releases@noaa.gov>

To: <awatts@xxxxx_.com>

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:27 PM

Subject: NOAA: Increased Hurricane Losses Due to More People, Wealth Along Coastlines, Not Stronger Storms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 21, 2008*** NEWS FROM NOAA ***
NATIONAL OCEANIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON, DC
Contact: Dennis Feltgen, NOAA 305-229-4404Increased Hurricane Losses Due to More People,
Wealth Along Coastlines, Not Stronger Storms, New Study Says

A team of scientists have found that the  economic damages from hurricanes have increased in the U.S. over time due to greater population,  infrastructure, and wealth on the U.S.  coastlines, and not to any spike in the number or intensity of hurricanes.

“We found that although some decades  were quieter and less damaging in the U.S. and  others had more land-falling hurricanes and more  damage, the economic costs of land-falling  hurricanes have steadily increased over time,”  said Chris Landsea, one of the researchers as  well as the science and operations officer at  NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami. “There  is nothing in the U.S. hurricane damage record  that indicates global warming has caused a  significant increase in destruction along our coasts.”

On the Web:
NOAA National Hurricane Center: http://www.hurricanes.gov
Link to paper:
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2476-2008.02.pdf

UPDATE: URL to paper as originally posted above was missing a period, works now, try again if you missed it before.

Well that pretty much says it all don’t you think? Will Gore revise AIT now?