Climate alarmists and their media allies once again made a slew of claims about natural disasters being caused by manmade emissions in 2022.
And once again, these claims clashed with reality and science.
CLIMATE FACT CHECK 2022
Climate alarmists and their media allies once again made a slew of claims about natural disasters being caused by manmade emissions in 2022. And once again, these claims clashed with reality and science.
Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein, for example in his recent article “New abnormal: Climate disaster damage ‘down’ to $268 billion,” reported this about the estimated costs of damage due to climate change during 2022:
This past year has seen a horrific flood that submerged one-third of Pakistan, one of the three costliest U.S. hurricanes on record, devastating droughts in Europe and China, a drought-triggered famine in Africa and deadly heat waves all over.... Weather disasters, many but not all of them turbocharged by human-caused climate change, are happening so frequently that this year’s onslaught, which 20 years ago would have smashed records by far, now in some financial measures seems a bit of a break from recent years.
But are damages from those disasters really attributable to “climate change” or are climate activists and their media mouthpieces just trying to surf human tragedy to advance their very political cause?
The Associated Press, a long-time major newswire service, now accepts donations specifically to fund its climate coverage. In 2022, in fact, the Associated Press admitted to receiving $8 million in donations to cover climate. The money came from very large foundations who have been pushing climate alarmism for decades, including
the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Is this money funding actual journalism or just rank political activism? Here are 10 fact checks of climate disaster claims made by the Associated Press and other media outlets in 2022. We report. You decide.
PAKISTAN FLOODS.
Monsoon season brought heavy flooding to Pakistan, resulting in over 1,700 deaths between June and October. Media blamed climate change.
HURRICANE IAN.
Striking in September, Hurricane Ian was one of the top three most damaging storms to strike the US. Media blamed climate change for the storm’s rapid intensification.
Fact Check. The 2022 monsoon season was within the range of natural variability and the wettest since 1961. If emissions are to blame, why was it so rainy then? Also average peak monsoonal rainfall actually has declined somewhat since the 1950s. Ongoing deforestation also may have made seasonal monsoon flooding worse.
Fact Check. Hurricane Ian struck during hurricane season, after a historically quiet first few months of hurricane season and amid a season of less storm activity than predicted. Moreover, Atlantic basin hurricane activity is within natural variability, according to NOAA.
Fact Check. The European megadrought of 1540 occurred before coal-fired power plants, SUVs and cheeseburgers. If emissions caused the drought, what caused it in 1540?
Fact Check. While the New York Times labeled China’s drought as “record” as it was supposedly the most extreme drought since records began in 1865, research reports severe megadrought in China as far back as 1637, amid a period called the Little Ice Age.
EUROPEAN
DROUGHT.
Europe experienced its most severe drought in 500 years, as reported by BBC News.
CHINA DROUGHT.
China experienced “record drought” in 2022.
FAMINE ON THE
Fact Check. There is no trend in rainfall in the Horn of Africa since 1990. So while the drought may be due to lack of rainfall, droughts are natural and periodic in
the region and the lack of rainfall cannot be attributed
to emissions. Famine in Somalia is more properly attributed to internal politics and conflict. While Somalia’s neighbors, Ethiopia and Kenya, have also been affected by regionwide drought, political stability has nonetheless allowed crop production in those states to increase, while instability in Somalia has had the opposite result.
Fact Check. Heat waves have dramatically declined
in frequency and duration in the US over the past 90 years, per the National Climate Assessment. So it is unlikely that emissions are increasing heat waves in Britain. Moreover, during the UK heatwaves, average global warming remained fairly constant at 0.2°C to 0.3°C (0.36°F to 0.54°F) over the 1979-2000 average global temperature, an amount of warming that is not even really measurable. So it may have been hot in the UK, but that was offset by cooling elsewhere. As pointed
out by meteorologist Cliff Mass, heat waves may bring temperatures 30°-40°F above normal, but global warming is in the noise level at 1°-2°F.
Fact Check. The New York Times correctly prefaced its version of the above-captioned statement with: “It is difficult to directly connect the damage in Yellowstone to a rapidly warming climate — rivers have flooded
for millenniums...” This year’s flood was related to an above-average snow pack that thawed just as massive rains came through. Cold weather + bad luck ≠ “climate change.”
HORN OF AFRICA.
Drought and famine struck the Horn of Africa this year, threatening starvation for as many, for example, as 300,000 in Somalia. “Climate change underpins this continued lack of rainfall,” the media reported.
UK HEAT WAVE.
Britain experienced several brief heatwaves in the summer, which were worsened by climate change, per the New York Times.
YELLOWSTONE
RIVER FLOODING.
Few in the media went so far as to say last summer’s Yellowstone River flooding was climate change, but they did the next best thing: “Experts say Yellowstone Flooding is a sign of things to come.”
LAKE MEAD.
Scientists blamed historically low water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead on climate change in the Wall Street Journal.
SKIING. Fact Check. First, winter doesn’t begin until December
WORLD CUP
Fact Check. Data show no trend in natural water
flows into Lake Mead since 1930. Since 2000, drawdowns of water from Lake Mead had been greater than natural inflows. The El Niño phenomenon, which is not emissions related, may also play a lesser role in Lake Mead water levels.
“In this World Cup season, climate change is winning,” blared a Washington Post headline in
November. Shorter winters were blamed for it being cold enough to hold only one of eight races as of mid-November.
21. Next, when World Cup skiing started in the 1960s, the season began in January. Now it begins in October, which is early- to mid-autumn. If the competition began in the winter everything would likely be okay because wintertime snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has been increasing since the 1960s.
The Bottom Line: There is not a single natural disaster, nor trend in any type of natural disaster that can be credibly linked with emissions or whatever gradual “climate change” may be occurring for whatever reason, including natural climate change. Attributing natural disaster damages to emissions and climate change is without a factual or scientific basis. And that certainly goes for 2022.
Regardless of one’s view of what passes as “climate science,” the good news is that even researchers who believe that “climate change” is a problem acknowledge that the number of weather-related deaths and the cost of weather-related damage are actually on the decline – despite ever-increasing emissions and whatever slight warming may be occurring.
Presented by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Heartland Institute, Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).