When President Joe Biden gave his initial remarks about federal relief for the storm damage he took some questions from the press. The very first question that any of our intrepid reporters from the White House press corps deigned to ask was whether or not the storm system was attributable to climate change.
Q Mr. President, does this say anything to you about climate change? Is this — or do you conclude that these storms and the intensity has to do with climate change?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, all that I know is that the intensity of the weather across the board has some impact as a consequence of the warming of the planet and the climate change.
The specific impact on these specific storms, I can’t say at this point. I’m going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that. But the fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming — everything. And, obviously, it has some impact here, but I can’t give you a — a quantitative read on that.
Apparently, not everyone agrees that “we all know” about the impact and it’s not “obvious” across the board. That includes some meteorologists, even the ones who are generally ready to talk about the impacts of global warming on trends in the planet’s weather systems. Over at Climate Depot, they heard from meteorologist Joe Bastardi who pointed out that making such a leap when looking at global weather patterns is “insanity.”
so is here forecast that what is a 1 in 96 year occurrence assuming it did beat the tri state tornado is now a once in a year occurrence in the fact of strong to violent tornadoes going the other way? I try to respect people serving my country,honest he statement is madness pic.twitter.com/J243u8iBEd
— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) December 13, 2021
On top of that, the historical record shows that over past decades, heavy tornadic activity has steadily decreased even as carbon emissions increased. The last peak came in the late 1960s and early 1970s when we were being warned about the dangers of global cooling and the possibility of another ice age being upon us. This is from yet another meteorologist.
Here are the facts:
• No overall trend in U.S. tornado activity since 1954; but EF-3+ down 50%.
• Climate models cannot resolve mesoscale features.
• Some enviro conditions may become more favorable in future, others less.
• Low confidence in climate change linkage. pic.twitter.com/G3vYVolpRf
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) December 11, 2021
ThinkCivics researches, examines, and reports on issues that matter most. We deliver explanative, fearless, and insightful analysis for public consumption.
