Super storms blamed on climate change

Tenuous Link to Climate Change Alert: Despite the association between "global warming" and increased storm activity being pretty well discredited, the mainstream media still drag it up whenever required to add a bit of spice to otherwise tedious stories. The basic premise of this one is as dull as dishwater:

"Australian East Coast storms are broadly cyclical over the past 200 years, and there's little to suggest it changing in the near future,"

which, let's be honest, wouldn't rate even a 2 cm column on page 94 of the local rag, just under the 5-a-side results. However, a journo at AAP has managed to spice it up by linking it to "climate change", and getting in some besuited "expert" to make some apocalyptic predictions (which, as an added bonus, will probably deliver some Government funds into his research department):

"It's going to cut the coast further inland and it will be more severe than past stormy periods because of the underlying climate change and subsequent sea rises."
...
"Improving emergency planning is important because when the event hits, we'll have very little warning and unless we're set up for it, it'll be a disaster much like Katrina was (in the US)," Dr [Peter] Helman [of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management] said.
...
Parts of the Gold Coast had lost several metres, but a relative quiet on the erosion front over the past 30 years had prompted both offices [of NSW's beach protection agencies] to be disbanded, he said.

You'd think that if they knew storm activity on the East Coast was cyclical, they may have worked out it would eventually increase again, so maybe it was a dumb idea to close the offices? Apparently not. 0/10. Must try harder.

Read it here.