It has recently become popular to blame natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and other bad weather on climate change. Groups like the National Wildlife Federation have gone to great lengths to try and convince people of this.
On their website, the NWF says, “Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, hurricanes stronger, and droughts more severe. The intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives.”
“Texas” says Josiah Neeley of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “has always been home to extreme weather events.” Citing the 1930s Dust Bowl and the 1900 Galveston hurricane, Neeley argues that if these events were to happen today, they would undoubtedly be blamed on global warming.
John Holdren, Obama’s science adviser, claims that, “weather practically everywhere is being caused by climate change.” Neeley argues that claims like this stems from what he calls, “Climate hypochondria.”
According to Neeley, those that try to link natural disasters often cite studies done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, TPPF researchers found that in their most recent report, the panel had “backed away” from the idea that man-made global warming causes natural disasters.
“There is not enough evidence at present to suggest more than low confidence in a global-scale observed trend in drought or dryness (lack of rainfall) since the middle of the 20th century…it is likely that the frequency and intensity of drought has…decreased in central North America and north-west Australia since 1950,” reads the IPCC’s latest report.
Additionally, a report done by the EPA states, “Records collected since the late 1800s suggest that the actual number of hurricanes per year has not increased.” The same report also notes that, “The 1930s and 1950s saw the most widespread droughts, while the last 50 years have generally been wetter than average.”
Follow Patrick Kane on Twitter @PatVKane.
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