Fact Check – Climate Change
JunkScience.com is published by JunkScience.com, Inc. It is edited by Steve Milloy.
The site is supported by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Heartland Institute, Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC), and Truth in Energy and Climate.
What follows is a reprint of most of the June 2023 edition of junkscience.com. Charts not included.
*****************
2023 marked the 35th anniversary of Dr. James Hansen’s front-page Senate testimony formally launching climate idiocy.
CANADIAN FOREST FIRES CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Numerous media outlets cynically tried to link the month’s wildfires in Canada, which caused the skies across America to turn yellow orange, with climate. The Washington Post, for example, reported: “The power of direct experience can change attitudes on climate change,” researchers say.”
Fact Check.
Smoky American skies caused by Canadian wildfires are not new. The historical record shows Canadian wildfires have darkened U.S. skies repeatedly since 1706. Since 1980, Canadian wildfires have generally been on the decline with occasional spikes.
TEXAS HEAT WAVE CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
The Washington Post tried to make the link in “The troubling heat in Texas and its ties to climate change in 5 maps.”
Fact Check.
Texas has suffered extreme and extended heat waves before, most recently in the June-August 1980 heat wave that resulted in 2,000 deaths. Moreover, heat wave frequency and intensity have dramatically declined in the US over the past 90 years.
WINE PRODUCTION DECLINING BECAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Canadian Public Broadcasting company reported in “Vintners warn a wine shortage could be coming, as they try to adapt to climate change,” that: “Sweltering summers and bitterly cold winters have been hindering wine production in British Columbia, with one winemaker warning that climate change might be cultivating a crisis in the industry.”
Fact Check.
Since 1990, Canadian grape and wine production has dramatically increased
FLORIDA STRAWBERRIES SUFFERING FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
Axios reported in “Florida’s strawberry industry threatened by climate change” that warmer temperatures are reducing the amount of time that Florida strawberries are experiencing ideal growing temperatures.
Fact Check.
As shown in the U.S. Department of Agriculture chart, Florida’s strawberry harvests increased nearly 50 percent between 2001 and 2019.
SUMMERS GETTING HOTTER
The New York Times reported in “Tracking Dangerous Heat in the U.S.” that: “Summer temperatures have become hotter and more extreme in recent decades
Fact Check.
The New York Times uses the 1951-1980 global cooling period as the baseline temperature and ignores hot summers before 1940. As shown below, hot summers have declined in the US since the 1930s.
INDIAN HEAT WAVE A SIGN OF CLIMATE CHANGE
About a 115°F heat wave, Bloomberg reported in “India’s June Heat Wave Deaths Are a Harbinger of Worse to Come” that: “Scientists estimate climate
change has made extreme heat 30 times more likely in India and the World Bank has flagged India is likely to be one of the first places in the world where heat waves breach the human survivability threshold.”
Fact Check
India is no stranger to heat waves. A June 1960 heat wave, for example, hit 116°F. Further, claims that climate change has made extreme
weather events more likely are based on computer models that assume
emissions make extreme weather more likely, an assumption that has no basis in fact.
CLIMATE CHANGE INTENSIFYING RAIN
The New York Times report in “Intensifying Rains Pose Hidden Flood Risks Across the U.S.” that: “One in nine residents of the lower 48 states, largely in populous regions including the Mid-Atlantic and the Texas Gulf Coast, is at significant risk of downpours that deliver at least 50 percent more rain per hour than local pipes, channels and culverts might be designed to drain.”
Fact Check.
A new study in the Journal of Hydrology reports that the intensity of small rain systems declined during the period 2011-2020 as compared to 2001-2010
and that there is no significant trend in larger systems over the period 2001-2020
BEES DYING FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
The Associated Press reported in “Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population” that climate change was a factor, such as an 80°F-day in Washington, D.C.”
Fact Check.
First, honeybee colony survival depends on a number of things, especially beekeeper hygiene. Next, Washington, DC has never had an 80°F Day in January, per the National Weather Service. While Washington DC has had January days in the 70s, they date as far back as 1907.
NORTH ATLANTIC HEAT WAVE DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
The Washington Post reported in “Beyond extreme ocean heat wave in North Atlantic is worst in 170 years” that: “Last month was the warmest May since 1850 for the Atlantic Ocean around the United Kingdom.”
Fact Check.
First, it curious that the Washington Post failed to ask the question: Why was the North Atlantic so warm before the industrial era? Next, the explanation for the warming is a dramatic change in the Atlantic current (as measured by the North Atlantic Oscillation Index) that is explained by natural factors other than emissions.
YOSEMITE WILDFIRE CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
In July 2022, the Guardian blamed the large wildfire in Yosemite on climate change.
Fact Check.
In June 2023, the cause of the Yosemite fire was determined as set by an arsonist.
We’ll close out by returning to James Hansen’s June 1988 testimony.
As it turns out, June 2023 was 1.53°F cooler in the U.S. than June 1988
It would be interesting to hear Dr. Hansen explain how June 2023 could possibly so much cooler than June 1988 despite a doubling of industrial era atmospheric CO2. Though pinged for a response via Twitter, so far not a peep from him.
*****************
Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://junkscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Climate-Fact-Check_June-2023-Edition_v3.pdf
SPIDER Bytes
This week’s trivia question is: What is the signature food dish served at Wimbledon? The answer to last week’s question re: Who was the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Conner. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1981 to 2006. Before O’Connor’s tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of the state senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O’Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Born in 1930, she passed in 2023.
Treasury bill yields are still rising despite the Fed reducing interest rates last month. Investors are now requiring a yield well over 4% across the maturity dates to take the risk of buying US debt.
The BLS year-over-year increase in consumer price index inflation in September was 2.4% according to data released Thursday morning. It has stubbornly stayed above the Fed’s 2% target for well over 2 years now. Since January 2021 and under the current administration, BLS reports groceries are up 21.1%, gasoline 38%, electricity 28% and auto insurance up 56.4%.
FEMA administrator, Deanne Coswell, and Homeland Security head Mayorkas both indicated last week that while they have enough money to fund Milton operations, there isn’t enough to finish out the year. The fiscal year starts 10/1 for the federal government. So whether they were talking about the calendar or the fiscal year, it seems impossible they don’t have enough money for disaster relief. BTW, FEMA’s written 2024-26 objectives are as follows: Goal 1: Instill equity as a foundation of emergency management; Goal 2: Lead whole of community in climate resilience; Goal 3: Promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared nation. I couldn’t find a word about disaster relief – the agency’s mission. President Biden has DEI the top priority in every department and agency.
Since 1988 Rotary has been on a quest to eradicate polio in the world. Despite all the effort and resources, not only by Rotarians but other entities that have joined the quest, Afghanistan and Pakistan remain as endemic. Northern Nigeria and east Congo also still report a few cases also. It’s been a long journey with a 99.9% reduction in cases but stamping it out permanently obviously involves overriding major obstacles of political unrest and superstition.
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Virginia and Alabama, alleging the states removed noncitizens from their voter rolls too close to Election Day. Enough said.
Several groups, including the indigenous Indian tribe of the Miccosukee, the Florida Fish & Wildlife and environmentalist groups are opposing the proposed National Parks Service (Interior Dept) designation of an expanded area of the Everglades as “wilderness.” Such a designation would require tribe members who still live there to move out and nix the management of the area’s wildlife and ecosystems by federal and state agencies. The area involved is about the size of Rhode Island. Why? That is what I ask about the plan. It doesn’t need the designation.
