{"id":280515,"date":"2023-09-26T16:16:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T14:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280515"},"modified":"2023-09-26T16:16:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T14:16:59","slug":"noaa-and-the-media-continue-to-misinform-about-climate-change-and-extreme-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280515","title":{"rendered":"NOAA and the Media Continue to Misinform About Climate Change and Extreme Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Scientific American<\/a><\/em>, among other mainstreams media outlets, such as The New York Times<\/a><\/em> and The Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, are promoting claims made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> (NOAA), that climate change is causing increased instances of extreme weather, causing billions of dollars of damage. An examination of the press release NOAA put out shows that the agency\u2019s claims are unsubstantiated. Extreme weather does cost Americans billions of dollars each year, but there is no evidence climate change is making weather worse, so it can\u2019t be the cause of higher costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, hard data refute NOAA\u2019s claims, suggesting the press release is nothing more than a slick campaign to hype up climate fear Exposing this campaign, climate Scientist Roger Pielke, Jr. Ph.D., Tweeted<\/a> three years ago:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former NOAA official admits tabulation of \u201cbillion dollar\u201d disasters was\/is a shadow campaign to get people to \u201cconnect the dots\u201d on climate change and severe weather Why not instead rely on actual data, IPCC, USNCA & peer-reviewed research?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pielke showed that in a\u00a0USA Today opinion piece<\/a>, the deputy administrator for NOAA, Monica Medina, admitted the shadow campaign to fool the media, as the screencap below, shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a 2020 Forbes article, \u201cEverything You Hear About Billion-Dollar Disasters Is Wrong<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong>\u201d Pielke cites data and graphs that refute NOAA\u2019s claims, blowing its effort to \u201cconnect the dots\u201d apart, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Are there more or more severe US hurricanes since 1900? No.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Is extreme weather costing us more as a proportion of GDP? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pielke goes on to say that the entire episode \u201cis an embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I worked in a @NOAA<\/a> cooperative institute for 16 years & it is an important agency, staffed by smart, thoughtful scientists But the \u201cbillion dollar\u201d disasters \u201cconnect the dots\u201d propaganda is an embarrassment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Despite the evidence that extreme weather events haven\u2019t become more common or severe during the recent period of modest warming, the \u201cconnect the dots\u201d propaganda continues today courtesy of disaster loaded NOAA press releases like the one that resulted this flurry of stories in the mainstream media in recent days, uncritically parroting NOAA\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the Scientific American<\/em> headline, just how does \u201ca record number of billion-dollar disasters show US isn\u2019t ready for climate change\u201d? According to hurricane data, the number of hurricanes making landfall in the United States has declined in recent decades. Hurricanes do billions of dollars more in damage compared to 30 years ago because more people live on hurricane prone coast, building and developing more expensive properties there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same holds true for destructive tornadoes<\/a> and many other types of extreme weather.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As demonstrated by the second graph above, when these weather-related catastrophes flagged by NOAA are correlated with inflation and the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, costs are declining, suggesting NOAA is pushing misinformation and the media is complicit in promoting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent Climate Realism<\/em> article, titled Wrong, Mainstream Media, \u2018Extreme Weather\u2019 is Fairly Common, Not Rare<\/a>, shows that despite media claims, so-called \u201crare\u201d weather events are actually fairly common, and there\u2019s no signal in suggesting that climate change aka \u201cglobal warming\u201d is making extreme weather events more common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees with this assessment. In its Sixth Assessment Report, chapter 12<\/a>, the IPCC says it finds low scientific confidence in the existence of any visible \u201cglobal warming\u201d effects<\/em><\/strong> in the form of weather extremes, for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n