Fake Media Blaming Heatwave On Climate Change
Dozens of prominent media outlets have published stories in the last few days claiming climate change is causing wildfires and a deadly heatwave. Objective data, however, show there has been no increase in either one as the Earth modestly warms.
A story on the Colorado Public Radio website, titled “Colorado Wildfires Are Climate Change ‘In The Here And Now’ — And A Sign Of Summers To Come,” explicitly links wildfires in the state to human-caused climate change, warning of worse to come.
The Washington Post (“Why California Wildfires are So Extreme Right Now,”) and Capitol Public Radio News (CPRN), “As Californians Deal With Heat, Lightning, Fire, Scientists Point To Climate Change,” also claim a heatwave and wildfires in California right now are caused by climate change.
“The heatwave, the fires and weather patterns are in part related to climate change, says UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, because warming temperatures are ‘with great certainty’ increasing these conditions,” CPRN’s reporter writes.
“This whole event started as a record-breaking heatwave … and we also know that climate change is increasing the severity and the acres burned by wildfires in California,” Swain told CPRN.
The CPRN reporter doesn’t question Swain’s asserted link between climate change and wildfires, despite the fact he provides no evidence to back it up. In fact, no such evidence exists.
Data show the number and severity of heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires have all decreased over the past century and a half, even as the planet has modestly warmed.
As summarized in Climate at a Glance: Heatwaves, data from the U.S. Climate Reference Network and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prove climate change has not increased the number or severity of heatwaves.
Indeed, in recent decades heatwaves have been far less frequent and severe, for example, than in the 1930s – nearly 100 years of global warming ago.
In fact, 40 states’ record-high temperatures were set before 1960, with 25 of the record highs being set or tied in the 1930s alone.
The most accurate nationwide temperature station network, implemented in 2005, shows no sustained increase in daily high temperatures in the United States since at least 2005.
Concerning droughts and wildfires, the data is just as clear – there has been a downward trend during the past century.
Data from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) cited in Climate at a Glance: Drought shows droughts have not become more frequent or severe in recent years.
In point of fact, the evidence shows the United States is undergoing its longest period in recorded history without at least 40 percent of the country experiencing “very dry” conditions.
Indeed, in 2017 and 2019, the United States registered its smallest percentage of land area experiencing drought in recorded history.
And the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports with “high confidence” precipitation over mid-latitude land areas of the Northern Hemisphere (including the United States) has increased during the past 70 years, while IPCC has “low confidence” about any negative trends globally.
Regarding wildfires, since drought is the key contributing climate factor, one should not be surprised to find, as reported in Climate at a Glance: Wildfires, records from the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) show wildfires have declined in number and severity in recent decades.
The NIFC tracks data on U.S. wildfires back as far as 1926, and it shows the number of acres burned is far less now than it was throughout the early 20th century.
As the Figure below shows, current acres burned run about 1/4th to 1/5th of the record values which occurred in the 1930s.
Globally, the data on wildfires is just as clear. On page 67 of Bjorn Lomborg’s book False Alarm, he points to research demonstrating:
“There is plenty of evidence for a reduction in the level of devastation caused by fire, with satellites showing a 25 percent reduction globally in burned areas just over the past 18 years … In total, the global amount of area burned as declined by more than 540,000 square miles, from 1.9 million square miles in the early part of the last century to 1.4 million square miles today.”
While the economic costs of wildfires have increased in recent decades, that is due to ever greater numbers of people moving into, and communities expanding into, areas historically prone to wildfires.
Also, people are erecting ever more expensive homes, commercial developments, and related infrastructure there. Urban development in formerly rural, wildfire-prone areas is the reason economic costs from wildfires are increasing.
Scientists can say what they want and journalists can write what they want about climate change, but, if they say climate change is causing an increase in the number or severity of heatwaves, drought, and wildfires, they are lying. The data prove it.
Read more at Climate Realism
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Barry
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If we allow our media to repeat lies without consequence we are doomed to allow people to push their own agendas for their own reward. Everything that effects our wx is now caused by agw,this is nothing but a lie. Our own records don’t go back far enough to have any idea of what nature is capable of and allowing so called scientists to tell lies without any proof what so ever is not productive for humanity. Until these people face some form of retribution we will keep making horrible mistakes such as wind and solar power,probably the most destructive policies we have right now. The world will need a new source of energy at some point but putting up rediculous windmills that kill millions of birds and produce poor quality intermittent power is not the answer. Govt should be spending on research not subsidizing poor quality alternative power sources.
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Carl
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While they assert that “climate change is causing wildfires and a deadly heatwaves” what they really mean to assert is that human produced carbon dioxide is causing the wildfires and heatwaves. (By the way, heatwaves are only “deadly” if the electric company cuts off your power because the state has mandated that it switch to using wind and solar energy for electricity generation, which are intermittent and unreliable, and you can’t run your air-conditioning.)
What never changes is the underlying pseudoscientific claim that is being made–“greenhouse gases” cause a “greenhouse effect” which warms the surface of the Earth.
Up to 80% of the hypothetical “greenhouse effect” supposedly comes from atmospheric water in the form of humidity and cloud cover. On the other hand, heatwaves are invariably associated with drought, i.e., low humidity and low cloud cover. Ergo, heatwaves and droughts only occur when this “most potent greenhouse gas” is lower than normal.
Add to that the fact the human contribution to the second most abundant “greenhouse gas”–carbon dioxide–has decrease ~17% this summer because of the forced COVID-19 confinement of world populations and severe restrictions on land and air travel “to slow the spread!”
So, one must ask, “How can a decrease in the atmospheric concentration of the two most potent ‘greenhouse gases’–carbon dioxide and water, which together are said to be responsible for ~90% of the hypothetical ‘greenhouse effect’–be causing the same hypothetical ‘greenhouse effect’ to more intense than normal and thus be causing this summer’s heatwave?”
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Makena
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The earth isn’t even warming at all. And there were barely any heatwaves this summer at least along the eastern seaboard.
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Barry
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Ya last year we had some large fires in western Canada all due to agw but this year we haven’t many at all .due to a cooler and damper wx pattern. You would think that the west never had fires before man entered the picture but the truth is western Canada burnt for years and that is part of natures way of rejuvenating the forest so we should have some controlled fires always. Probably due to the grand solar minimum we can expect this kind of wx to persist for years. Only time will tell.
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Gary Ashe
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Its a recurring heatwave thats the trouble, its called summer.
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tom0mason
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“The CPRN reporter doesn’t question Swain’s asserted link between climate change and wildfires, despite the fact he provides no evidence to back it up. In fact, no such evidence exists. “
Yes indeed, this claim stands contrary to the IPCC’s pontification.
It’s also contrary to any rational idea of how weather and climate operate.
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