Or not -- Finding the answer may depend on the research of
University of North Carolina at Charlotte environmental
micropaleontologist Scott Hippensteel -- and on microscopic
shells, barrier marshes and fiddler crabs. The answer may be
critical not just in weather forecasting, but in adjusting
insurance rates, in preparing for future disasters and in
guiding future environmental policy. Since climate science
cannot yet accurately predict the future, the best way we can
find these answers is to look at history (or "prehistory"). But
how much history is there for us to look at? "Is the frequency
of big storms going on now natural and should we expect this in
the future?" Hippensteel said. "How much of this is
anthropogenic? In trying to answer questions like these, what
data do we have to compare our recent records to? "We have 400
years of historical records, and about a century of real weather
records. If you look at the coastal area that I'm doing research
on, we've had one major hurricane a category 4 or 5