Wait, what?: Did burning fossil fuels cause a relative lull in hurricane activity?

If so, don't the people of Bangladesh owe reparations to Americans for all those hurricane-preventing aerosols we produced during the Carter administration?

Are hurricanes linked to global warming? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

"It's possible that aerosols over the Atlantic have caused some changes in hurricane activity over time, and I'm thinking specifically of the relative lull in activity in the 1970s and '80s," Knutson tells MNN. "That's an example of a possible anthropogenic effect on hurricane climate activity, but not strictly a long-term trend like you'd expect from the effect of greenhouse gases. There are some preliminary indications that aerosol forcing may have caused that temporary reduction."

That leads some skeptics to argue the past decade's hurricane flurry is just a rebound from this lull, but Knutson says there's little evidence of that, either.

2004:  Burning Fossil Fuels Has A Measurable Cooling Effect On The Climate

Most evidence that increased levels of fossil fuel particles (aerosols) affects the reflectivity of clouds, thereby producing a cooling effect on the climate, has been indirect. "This made it difficult to determine the impact this phenomena, known as the indirect aerosol effect, has on the global climate," Penner said. "Our data makes the direct connection and opens new areas of study."