dr. droegemeier's comment.irst before we modify a system we have to know what the system is comprised of and if we look for example to hurricanes it is only in the last several years we have begun to understand the role of the phenomena such as el nino, millennia on hurricane development and some the merchant right now is we are discovering dry air mass coming off the sahara, very strong influence on whether hurricanes will form or not. five years ago we had no idea of spasso i would say the research that goes into understanding the system and the development of any weather phenomenon would have to be addressed with it is to improve the forecast or engage in any kind of modification. my second point is an emphasis on on the intended consequences and i hope we would include some understanding of the consequences to the ecosystem itself. there are some indications for example the because hurricanes have a major strength effect they reintroduce nutrients into the environment and the gulf flexible there are potenti

dr. droegemeier said. insurance studies hazard events worldwide and if i could provide the committee for the record their chart showing exactly what has been mentioned here, and that is a relatively steady the number of geophysical advanced earthquakes, that nature, and pretty dramatic rise which i realize you can see from that distance, and the number of climatological events. it seems to me that what should be driving this agenda is that our population and the values at risk has increased at extraordinary amount in hurricane prone areas. and that if we were not in the past providing enough research money to support hurricane research, we have every reason to do so now as our population has shifted into areas of greater and greater risk. in my prepared statement there is a data to support what the insured dies of risen to be at the number of people. it is a dramatic rise. >> your chart will be entered into the record. senator vitter? senator martinez? >> maybe what i should do is give each of you others w

dr. droegemeier, what is the relationship, if any, between climate change and hurricanes? >> that is a very good question, senator. we tend a lot of times to think about climate changing the nature of hurricanes. for example, the intensity and frequency is frequency. but it is a twtwo-way street. hurricanes can impact climateless. recent studies have suggested that with the climate changing as we believe it is as the records indicate we are seeing a shift not in the total number of storms but keeping the numbers constant but a larger number of more intense hurricanes and smaller number of less intense hurricanes. so we see that shift in the atlantic. there is also some sense of the hurricane, the power of the hurricane being greater the last several decades than prior to that. those are some evidences that we are seeing but it is a challenge to draw definitive conclusion so the work needs to be ongoing. flipping the coin around and looking at the impact on the climate system of hurricanes the last few years we have seen as dr. spinrad mentioned some new discoveries, the ro

dr. droegemeier said.if i can provide for the committee a chart showing exactly what has been mentioned here and that is a relatively steady number of geophysical events and convection and dramatic rise in the number of climatological events. it seems to me that what should be driving it agenda is that our population and the values at risk at increased in extraordinary amounts in hurricane prone areas and if we were not in the past providing enough research money to support hurricane research we have every reason to do so as the population has shifted to areas of greater risk. in my prepared statement there is data to support what the insured values have risen to be. >> your chart will be entered in the record. senator vitter? senator martinez. >> implemented to -- maybe i should give each of the others that have not spoken a chance to speak, give you a chance of getting your thoughts in and i will come back with questions. >> and you might discuss whether or not you think we are making progress on reducin