[ti:Are Rising Temperatures to Blame for Typhoon Haiyan?] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:In the News] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00][04:56.02]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com [00:04.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:06.88]this is In the News. [00:08.99]The Philippine government is defending its efforts [00:12.51]to get assistance to victims of Typhoon Haiyan. [00:16.15]Many have received little or no assistance [00:19.54]since the storm struck a week ago. [00:22.04]Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said Friday [00:25.93]in the city of Tacloban that the need is massive, [00:29.93]immediate and not everyone can be reached. [00:33.52]The aircraft carrier USS George Washington [00:37.48]and other US Navy ships [00:39.93]arrived in the Philippines this week [00:42.53]to help with disaster relief operations. [00:45.67]The ships brought helicopters and emergency aid. [00:50.28]The Navy is deploying the helicopters [00:53.84]to inspect damage from Typhoon Haiyan. [00:57.39]The aircraft are also being used [01:00.23]to transport supplies to affected communities. [01:04.03]The aircraft carrier also has medical services [01:08.12]and can produce 1.5 million liters of fresh water a day. [01:14.47]The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people. [01:18.82]The country's chief of disaster relief said Friday [01:23.21]that at least 3,600 people are known to have died. [01:28.91]The amount of food and other aid sent to the Philippines [01:33.55]has increased in recent days. [01:36.19]But moving the aid from airports or other areas [01:40.43]has been a slow process, [01:43.03]in part because wreckage blocks many roads. [01:46.67]Scientists say Typhoon Haiyan was one of the strongest storms [01:52.67]on record ever to hit land. [01:55.66]Some people wonder whether man-made climate change [01:59.75]played a part in the typhoon. [02:02.05]Bob Ward is with the Grantham Research Institute [02:05.50]on Climate Change at the London School of Economics. [02:09.65]"There's certainly strong circumstantial evidence [02:11.40]because we know that the strength of tropical cyclones, [02:15.14]hurricanes, typhoons, depends very much on sea surface temperatures. [02:20.62]They act as the fuel. [02:22.48]And we've got very warm waters in the Pacific at the moment, [02:25.22]which have been increasing because of climate change, [02:28.47]and those very warm waters are what powered this typhoon." [02:32.12]Bob Ward says the intensity of storms seems to be increasing. [02:37.22]"Our models are not very clear at the moment. [02:40.26]But we might expect in the future that we might even see fewer, [02:43.31]but those that do occur will be much stronger than we're experiencing now." [02:47.36]Benedict Dempsey is with the aid group Save the Children. [02:51.80]He says detailed weather predictions meant [02:55.60]that some aid workers were already in place when the storm hit. [03:00.20]"Half a dozen people went into the path of the storm [03:02.41]in order to be prepared for the response in Tacloban [03:06.01]and elsewhere in the Philippines." [03:07.60]He says aid agencies are learning [03:10.20]to prepare for natural disasters of this kind. [03:13.60]"Between around 2002 and 2011, [03:16.89]on average over 260 million people a year are being affected by disasters. [03:21.03]And so we're seeing the reality of these trends acting out on the ground, [03:24.87]and it's absolutely something [03:26.24]that we're having to prepare to respond to in the future." [03:29.28]Benny Peiser is director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. [03:33.88]His group questions whether human activities [03:37.54]are to blame for rising temperatures. [03:40.39]He says people should be concerned about disaster preparation [03:45.58]instead of cutting gases linked to climate change. [03:49.83]"This was the 20th tropical storm to have hit the Philippines this year. [03:55.03]So this is going to continue no matter what we decide on CO2, [04:01.58]these storms will continue." [04:02.67]Climate change talks are taking place in Warsaw, Poland. [04:06.83]At the talks, the Philippine representative appealed for an agreement [04:11.93]to cut industrial gases like carbon dioxide. [04:16.57]Scientist Bob Ward says the delegates should pay close attention. [04:22.07]"I think this typhoon will focus minds very much on the fact [04:27.21]that if we squabble and delay in getting an agreement, [04:30.30]we're going to see more and more of these kind of events [04:33.35]with very, very severe human costs." [04:36.22]But observers at the Warsaw talks say [04:39.61]a deal on cutting greenhouse gases still appears to be far away. [04:44.92]And that's In the News, from VOA Learning English. [04:50.71]I'm Bob Doughty.