On second thought, maybe Katrina isn't all due to global warming. Or Bush.

Lest you are tempted to give credence to those who claim that the hurricane was due to some combination of global warming and President Bush, read on.

First some blame-Bush rhetoric from the usual suspects:

• Here is some blather from the blame-America crowd in Germany:

  Germany's environment minister hinted Tuesday that Americans were to blame for Hurricane Katrina due to the U.S. refusal to cut greenhouse gases which many experts say cause global warming.
  
  "The increasing frequency of these natural events can only be explained through global warming which is caused by people," said Trittin....
  
  "A U.S. citizen causes about two and a half times as much greenhouse gas as the average European," said Trittin.

• More from the blame-Bush, blame-global-warming crew in Germany here:

  Katrina Should be A Lesson To US on Global Warming
  
  Seems like everything is President Bush's fault. One day after Katrina hammered the Gulf Coast, German commentators are laying into the US for its stubborn attitude to global warming and Kyoto.

• This headline (from a liberal blog) is written in all seriousness:

  Katrina Proves Bush is a Failure.

But before you jump to any conclusions, take a look at the data. Blog EU Rota looked at the numbers from NOAA. Turns out the overall frequency of hurricanes has been on a fairly steady downward trend from 1941 through 2004. Here's a chart:


Chart from EU ROTA based on NOAA data

And the frequency of major hurricanes (category 3 and higher) shows the same trend.

(Hat tip: Instapundit, with an assist from Google.)