Global-warming alarmists take note: A study released by NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory predicts there will be fewer Atlantic hurricanes in the future, should models of greenhouse gas increases prove accurate.

Researchers were, however, quick to point out that increased greenhouse gases could theoretically increase a storm’s intensity. “This study adds more support to the consensus finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other reports... that hurricanes will gradually become more intense as the climate continues to warm,” said Tom Knutson, who participated in the study. Then again, “It’s a bit of a mixed picture in the Atlantic because we’re projecting fewer hurricanes overall,” he added. Mixed bag indeed. Not long ago, a CNN meteorologist, contradicting claims from Albert Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” said that “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we’ve seen,” and that “by the end of this century we might get about a five-percent increase.”

Something else no one saw in the news this week: A petition was unveiled Monday by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine with the signatures of 31,000 individuals, all U.S. citizens with science degrees (more than 9,000 of them were doctorates), stating in part, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”

Finally, in other related global-warming news, the state of Alaska will sue over the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, fearing that the listing will cripple oil and gas development, which is crucial for the state.