By Michael Bastasch
As Hurricane Ian bears down on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the liberal media is desperately trying to score political points by linking the near-Category 5 storm to man-made global warming.
Calling on their go-to activists and scientists, the media has pummeled us with headlines such as “Hurricane Ian Intensifies into a Monster with Climate Markings,” which was republished in Scientific American of all places.
To play climate politics when lives are at stake is absolutely abhorrent. Yet every year, the media plays the same game, blaming every hurricane, flood, drought and even snowstorm on global warming.
NPR went with: “Hurricane Ian’s forecast shows the impact of a changed climate.” And The Associated Press claimed the hurricane “is quickly gaining monstrous strength as it moves over oceans partly heated up by climate change,” quoting a scientist who calls Ian a “harbinger” of what’s to come in a warming world.
The media narrative on hurricanes is shockingly simple, yet light on data — per CNN, “Ian’s rapid intensification … is something scientists say is becoming more likely for hurricanes as the climate crisis advances, pushing ocean temperatures higher and laying the groundwork for them to explode at breakneck pace into deadly major hurricanes.”
Hand-wavy claims like that, backed with scientists’ seal of approval, are difficult to dismiss. But what does the United States’ top authority on hurricanes have to say about attempts to blame climate change for Hurricane Ian’s intensity? I did what most of the media failed to do and asked.
“It is difficult to attribute all of the characteristics of individual storms like Ian to climate change,” Tom Knutson, senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA), said.
Knutson has helped author massive scientific reports usually heralded by the liberal media, such as the National Climate Assessment. If there’s one person who understands the data and the science on hurricanes and climate change, it’s him.
“Ian is just one case out of the ‘population’ or one sample of the current statistical characteristics of storms,” Knutson said.
Knutson’s smackdown of speculation that “the science” provides a clear link between Hurricane Ian and greenhouse gas emissions isn’t surprising. Knutson is also the author of NOAA’s own scientific assessment — the “scientific consensus,” if you will — on hurricanes and climate change more broadly.
I distinctly remember a time when the liberal media, Democrats and climate activists viciously attacked anyone who questioned the so-called “97% consensus” on global warming. So why doesn’t the media ignore NOAA’s top-tier assessment on this matter?
To answer that question, all you need to do is read the assessment’s conclusion: “In summary, it is premature to conclude with high confidence that human-caused increasing greenhouse gases have had a detectable impact on past Atlantic basin hurricane activity, although they are strongly linked to global warming.”
A strong, definitive statement, but apparently one the media can’t or refuses to understand.
When CNN’s Don Lemon tried to turn what should have been a public safety announcement about a deadly storm into a political stunt, none other than the head of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) smacked him down.
“What effect does climate change have on this phenomenon? Because it seems these storms are intensifying,” Lemon asked. To which, NHC Acting Director Jamie Rohme responded: “I don’t think you can link to climate change to any one event.”
Rohme threw Lemon a bone by saying climate change “may” be making hurricanes worse, but “cautioned against” linking it to “one event.”
Frankly, Rohme was being nice. To play climate politics when lives are at stake is absolutely abhorrent. Yet every year, the media plays the same game, blaming every hurricane, flood, drought and even snowstorm on global warming.
At least this time, top NOAA scientists are trying to set the scientific record straight and get people the truly vital information they need in order to stay safe without political interference.
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I find it interesting they blame everything on climate change without ever going back to see what took place in the past.
If I was watching the disaster in Florida yesterday they posted a screen that showed the worst ever hurricane in Florida’s history..
That happened back in the ’30s and I believe if I remember correctly the wind was 185 mph.
We have these liberals lying about maga supporters and about moms who want to defend their children at school board meetings and stop the indoctrination of our children in the schools
We have them lying about why the price of gasoline is sky high and why inflation is out of control
Under this leadership we are going to be paying about 5 dollars a gallon for heating oil to try to stay warm this winter and one of the coldest states in the nation.
When will people wake up?
We are electing politicians in about 40 days who are going to either keep forcing this stuff down our throat or expose the truth to us..
We need to think about who we are going to elect to represent us in this election are we are going to lose the whole ball of wax..
The madness has to stop..
I am doing my part by denouncing Joe Benning to become our lieutenant Governor in the state of Vermont when he calls us white supremacists and insurrectionists and racists while he supports Joe Biden and his corrupt administration being totally aligned with Governor Phil Scott who voted for Joe Biden..
I’m asking any Vermonter who is truly concerned about the direction our state is headed and will continue in to step up to the plate and write in Gregory Thayer for Lieutenant Governor in the state of Vermont…
I received my ballot in the mail and I found if I print small enough I can get all of the information in clearly and I’m encouraging each and every person in the state of Vermont The cares about our state and wants us to survive as free Vermonters to do the same.
As Republicans in the state of Vermont we need to defend our state from people like Joe Benning
We need to send a message to the Republican party that we will no longer tolerate the garbage they are cramming down our throats
Please visit http://www.GregoryThayer.com
Everyone should spread the word among friends and family, in the community, and on social media.
Ballot MUST be filled out EXACTLY:
“Gregory M. Thayer of Rutland”
Nothing new under the sun here. Here’s one that will be remembered for a long time and it was 50 years ago when there was supposed to be another “Ice Age” in progress. I guess the Chicken Littles were mistaken about that too.
https://www.weather.gov/ctp/Agnes
Dr. Spencer debunks the ‘catastrophes are increasing due to a warming atmosphere’ meme: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/29/after-hurricane-ian-no-trend-in-florida-landfalls-global-activity-trending-down/
Jim1
Liberals, really how pathetic are they ??, they’ll say anything for their agenda, brainwashed
fools.
If just once really stated something factual and did not blame it on Global Warming, people
might take them seriously……………..you can’t fix stupid or a liberal !!
EV, now that’s a real-life saver in an emergency ……………………
People have to remember that this is the same progressive-liberal controlled and driven media that has tried to link climate change to cow farts…
Can you imagine if even smaller EARTHQUAKE hit California and people need to evacuate all at once…in EV cars..with WHATEVER charge they have……and ALL CA cars were mandated electric… but the quake takes down most of the power lines for ability too get any access to electricity…and even generating plants shut down? People will die. But if the “Big One” ever hit CA and every single car and truck car is electric? It is a pure murderous Enviro mandated Doomsday scenario. Truth hurts, Libs 🙂
Read this quote, about the massive human castastrophe as perhaps millions of people tried to evacuate in FLA if they ALL had electric cars! They all may have died in a highway parking lot of dead batteries. TRUTH hurts right Libs?
“It is fortunate that as of the current moment, electric vehicles constitute only about 100,000, out of nearly 8 million vehicles registered to drive on Florida’s roads. What if they all were electric, the (impractical) dream dream of greenies?
Depending on how heavily loaded they were, even assuming everyone had a full battery charge, cars from southern Florida would start running out of juice after 100 – 250 miles. They would then have to spend hours at recharging stations, which would rapidly be clogged with other cars and trucks waiting their turn, since an electricity “fill up” can easily take an hour or more, as compared to a couple of minutes for gasoline. Cars waiting to be charged would spill onto the highways, potentially blocking traffic.
Those cars that ran out of juice on the highway would block traffic. Even assuming that emergency service vehicles could get to them (unlikely if the entire fleet were electric cars), towing a portable generator (powered by fossil fuels, of course) and recharging the stalled vehicles would take plenty of time, as well, further blocking traffic. The stranded cars would, of course, have no air conditioning, no wipers, no GPS.
In all likelihood, the highways would become vast parking lots, trapping their passengers wherever they happened to be stalled, waiting for the storm and flood waters to reach them, unable to get to safety.It is a nightmare scenario, and it is perfectly predictable. California and other states have already mandated a conversion to an all-electric vehicle fleet. When natural disaster strikes and the fleet is electric vehicles, the disaster will be compounded if this mad scheme is carried through.
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