The four hurricanes that bashed Florida and the Caribbean in the five-week period after the summer, intense storms over the western Pacific, heat waves that kill tens of thousands of Europeans last year and continued drought over the southwestern United States is only beginning, experts say.

The ice is melting faster than anyone expected in Antarctica and Greenland, ocean currents are changing and the sea is on the slide, experts.

“This year, a remarkable period of intense activity damage, with four hurricanes hit in the five-week period, can be a precursor of things to come,” said Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.

Epstein and colleagues called a telephone news conference to raise their concerns, they have also been put before Congress in recent weeks.

“Weather patterns are changing. The character of the system is changed,” said Epstein. “It is a signal of how the system is not stable and behaves.”

Experts have long said that the people who affect the climate in the world, and this is no longer in any real dispute. Fossil fuels like oil, in particular, that release carbon dioxide forms a blanket that keeps heat from the sun.

But some experts have refutes the idea that this year’s hurricane season was unique.

“Recent history tells us that the storm does not become more frequent,” James O’Brien, professor of meteorology and oceanography at Florida State University, and colleagues said in a recent statement.

“According to meteorological measurements, extreme weather conditions do not improve.”

Faster than feared

James McCarthy, professor of biology at Harvard University and former co-director of the group from the impact of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agreed said it is not possible to estimate the storm or drought caused by climate change.

But, he added, “We know that the temperature on earth is to change the pattern … I different continents now clear that there is the effect of changes in temperature and precipitation.

Even the most ardent researchers had predicted that some changes will happen as soon come, “he said. For example, several high-profile reports have described the unexpected rapid loss of ice in Antarctica and Greenland.

“The really important component of the interactive climate system,” said McCarthy. “They should really be a goods up call.”

Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said that the level of carbon dioxide that more than 30 percent higher than in pre-industrial times.

“Global sea level has risen by about a quarter inch, and in the last 10 years,” he added. “Most of the increase is due to the expansion of the sea surface because the ocean warms,” he said, saying that 25 percent to 30 percent comes from melting ice.

Insurance is a serious trend, “said Matthias Weber, Senior Vice President and Chief property USA responsible for the U.S. direct insurance division of Swiss Re.

“This is the first time since 1886 that we have four hurricanes in one country affects the same season,” said Weber. “More than 22 percent of all homes (in Florida), which is influenced by at least one of the storm.”