Guns, Butter, and Led Zepplin

[Olon97]

In other words, what the media will report as a fact, and what some fools will assert as "known" is a matter of ongoing study and a lot of hard work on the part of some smart, industrious, and intellectually curious scientists.

Media reporting of climate science (and environmental science) in general is deplorable. Either they present new findings as the de-facto truth, or interpret any amount of uncertainty/disagreement as an equally valid "counterpoint" to solid research (which very often is quite candid about its own limitations).

Science is not a soccer game. Finding one scientist whose research implies X, and another scientist whose research implies Y does not mean a tied score. Especially when one is independently funded, nobel laureate, unassailable in peer review, etc. and the other works for a community college and receieves funds/ speaker fees from a political slanted organization. I've seen far too many "news" articles that present such disparate sources with equal weight in the point-counterpoint format.

That said, compared to the human impact on global warming debate (too big of a tangent to go on here), the effect of a warming climate change (and human ability to influence such phenomenon) and hurricanes is certainly not a well established & widely supported link. I don't think you'll find a single legitimate climate scientist who will tie the current administration's environmental policies to the effects of Katherine. Simple matter of residence times and the delays between cause and effect in these models.