This meaning is this year harricanes will be stronger and many numbers more than any other time?

lala, Tokyo, JPN

I agree. It's not because of global warming. It's because of SIN, you know do whatever you want, not what's moral and right.
It doesn't matter. Well, it will and soon.
Mark these words well and see for yourself.

Pastor C, Kng, AZ

Naz in London is absoluately correct. I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks you! Dissent is not tolerable. This trend is growing to the proportion of a world-wide religion that everyone must comply. It is so sad.

Bill, Naperville, IL

I'd be willing to make a substantial bet that this research will quietly disappear and not be widely (if at all) reported. It only made page 20 of "The Times" anyway whereas the latest scaremongering 'evidence' of man's cavalier trashing of mother Earth always seems to make page 1.

M Perrior, Hastings, UK

It is so amazing to think that we know so much, but yet how little we know. Looking at this report, even though it wants to say that GW is happening, the storms record just doesn't show that. What I want to know is how many hurricanes ther were in 2005BC, 1005BC, 500BC, 500AD, 1000AD, or any other year during that time (NOT GUESSES, BUT ACTUAL COUNTS). Also, what were the earths temperatures during these years (AGAIN, NOT GUESSES, BUT ACTUAL DATA). Unless you can give that data, you are only a shake down artist trying to get money for nothing. GW is a religion for those who have no God. Thank you for this story.

Bill, SC,

Today I read a story that Cats are going flooding into shelters because of global warming. I used to think we the environmentalists were trying to protect the environment...but I've come to the conclusion that it's a form of insanity.

The enviro-fascists are trying to use the so-called man-made global warming to take more and more power. It truly is crazy!

Rand E Oertle, Springville, UT

Thanks to The Times for giving such prominence to academic research findings these days. Anyone would think there must be an ulterior motive. But just to point out that the study does have its critics. James Elsner of Florida State University in the US points out the study looks at corals in just one part of the Atlantic. An increase in hurricane activity in a single region could indicate a change in their direction, not an increase in overall activity in the Atlantic.

rod, machynlleth, powys

yeah, and anyways no one thing is the cause. Global warming, nuclear bomb tests, cow flatulence. you can use statistics to prove any point.

aaron, pensacola, florida

Finally som non-manipulative research on global warming.

Maybe The Times could be the first major international newspaper to do research on why the UN and a large group of scientists lend their good name to this level of public manipulation that we have seen in this subject.

Jonas, Stockholm,

The man made GW espousing enviro-fascists will reject this study. The govt will realise that this does not support an increase taxation model, so unfortunately, it will not gain much traction in the media. We have to accept the one mantra we've been fed. Any dissent or disagreement is heresy. GW is man-made, we must accept that without question, we must believe it, we must....

Naz, London,

After the very active 2005 season (which included Katrina) the "experts" had predicted a similarly active 2006. However, last year, there were just 10 tropical storms in the Atlantic and none made landfall in the United States. The strongest one was a class 3 Gordon, which petered out over the Atlantic. With the benefit of hindsight this is "explained" by the "unexpected" El Nino warming of the Pacific in 2006, which presumably "dampened" conditions in the Atlantic. But the low hurricane count last year had more to do with the much lower sea-surface temperatures in the Western Atlantic compared top 2005 than with anything else. How El Nino, a Pacific phenomenon, caused that is unexplained.

What this comes down to is simply that, although hurricanes themselves are reasonably well understood, the outlook for the season is anybodies guess. The current prediction for 2007 is 13-17 named storms of which 6 or 7 make landfall. Let's wait and see.

Ed Zuiderwijk, Cambridge, UK