Officials tracking the approach of the peak hurricane season told President Bush on Monday that data linking a series of devastating storms to global warming was inconclusive.
Eleven months after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, Bush visited the National Hurricane Center in Florida, a state often battered by hurricanes.
Showing Bush the maps and other devices used to predict storms, Max Mayfield, the hurricane center's director, said one question he is asked often is whether the powerful hurricanes of the past few years, like Katrina, Rita and Wilma, were the result of the earth's warming.
A scientist at the center, Christopher Landsea, told Bush there was "not a consensus" linking the two.
Hurricane and climate scientists outside the government have been wrestling with that debate as well. Many environmental groups are upset with Bush for his rejection of the Kyoto agreement to cut greenhouse gases.
Many climate scientists believe carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat like the glass walls of a greenhouse and cause global warming. Skeptics doubt people affect global climate change and say temperature fluctuations have occurred throughout history.
Bush came under scathing criticism for the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which hit on August 29 and killed 1,300 and displaced hundreds of thousands.
The White House is eager to show that the president has learned lessons from that disaster and that the federal government has been thorough in preparing for the possibility of harsh storms this year.
June marked the official start of the hurricane season, but the peak season for the storms is between mid-August and mid-October.
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