Who is at fault for Katrina?

While many are doing what they can to alleviate the suffering of the people in the devastated Gulf Coast region some are more concerned with assigning blame. Andrew Chrenkoff has compiled a list of some of the silly statements from environmental nuts like RFK Jr., media goofs and others. Here is the worst.

8. The prize for originality in "blame the Republicans" stakes, however, goes to Russell Shaw at the Huffington Post, for whom basing the current Republican president is not enough:

Would New Orleans and the nearby Gulf Coast be suffering so terribly today if President Carter beat back Reagan in 1980?...

I am wondering if those voters in Louisiana and Mississippi who helped polluter-allied Reagan win in 1980 would have found themselves fated differently under a second Carter term. If Carter came in, we could have had an alternative fuels program and tighter auto emission standards in effect by now.

Are these nuts right? Is pollution and automobile emissions causing "Global Warming" and more hurricanes? Personally, I don't think so. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has records of hurricanes by decade. As you can see the cars in the late 1800's must have been even worse because there were more hurricanes back then.

Hurricanes striking US mainland by decades (Source: NOAA)
Decade - total/major (major=cat.3,4,5)
Decade = 1851-1860, 1861-1870 ... etc.

1850s - 19/6
1860s - 15/1
1870s - 20/7
1880s - 22/5
1890s - 21/8
1900s - 18/4
1910s - 21/7
1920s - 13/5
1930s - 19/8
1940s - 24/10
1950s - 17/8
1960s - 14/6
1970s - 12/4
1980s - 15/5
1990s - 14/5
2001-2004 - 9/3

The arrogance of people to think we can affect the weather to such an extent.