Hurricane talk mostly hot air.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

With the end of the 2006 hurricane season a month ago, residents in storm-prone areas were able to breathe a sigh of relief, as not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S. this year--confounding predictions of more frequent and destructive hurricanes due to global warming.

"If global warming caused last year's catastrophic hurricanes, then how do the alarmists explain this year?" asks Myron Ebell, director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C. "Those who tried to use the tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to press for energy rationing and legislation should apologize for their shameless exploitation of Gulf Coast victims."

Despite claims by global warming campaigners such as former Vice Pres. Al Gore, the connection between higher temperatures and hurricanes is far from clear or settled. Even given the simple premise that warmer waters likely will increase the number, strength, and formation area of hurricanes to some extent, recent research predicts that any likely change will be so small as to be difficult to measure.

"Since even the...