{"id":319431,"date":"2024-04-22T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T07:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319431"},"modified":"2024-04-22T09:36:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T07:36:26","slug":"wrong-propublica-climate-change-is-not-causing-hurricanes-wildfires-or-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319431","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, ProPublica, Climate Change Is Not Causing Hurricanes, Wildfires, or Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An article by the website ProPublica titled The Flooding Will Come \u201cNo Matter What\u201d<\/a> linked to Hurricane Katrina, storm refugees, and climate change, claiming that the storm was evidence of the beginning of a \u201cclimate migration\u201d in America. The connection is false. Data refutes a climate connection to any particular hurricane or trend in migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article does a lot of rambling coverage of a family that was displaced by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great American migration is now underway, this time forced by the warming that is altering how and where people can live. For now, it\u2019s just a trickle. But in the corners of the country\u2019s most vulnerable landscapes \u2014 on the shores of its sinking bayous and on the eroding bluffs of its coastal defenses \u2014 populations are already in disarray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article goes on to follow the trials and tribulations of a single family who had their home destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. Pro Publica believes this case is evidence of climate change causing a \u201cmigration,\u201d because the family have not moved back to the same location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article itself cites no data and or study to support its claim about hurricane Katrina. Rather, it simply state\u2019s the author\u2019s opinions as if it were an established fact. Later article similarly describes families displaced by the 2018 campfire in Paradise CA, as climate refugees writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the number of displaced people continues to grow, an ever-larger portion of those affected will make their moves permanent, migrating to safer ground or supportive communities. They will do so either because a singular disaster like the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California \u2014 or Hurricane Harvey, which struck the Texas and Louisiana coasts \u2014 is so destructive it forces them to, or because the subtler \u201cslow onset\u201d change in their surroundings gradually grows so intolerable, uncomfortable or inconvenient that they make the decision to leave, proactively, by choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it should be noted that weather events such as a hurricane are not proof of climate change, and ProPublica is falsely conflating short term weather events with long-term climate change.<\/a> Further, as discussed in Climate at a Glance: Hurricanes<\/a>, even the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admits to finding no increase in the long-term frequency or severity of hurricanes. Also, after Katrina, the United States went through its longest period in recorded history without a major hurricane strike<\/a>, and recently experienced its fewest total hurricanes in any eight-year period. There has been no increase in the number or intensity of tropical cyclones since 1972<\/a> as the planet has modestly warmed. Indeed, for some basins the data suggests tropical cyclone frequency has actually declined over the past century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data presented in more than 100 previous\u00a0Climate Realism<\/em>\u00a0posts,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>, for example, clearly show that hurricane trends are relatively flat over the past 50 years of modest warming, and the trend in powerful Atlantic hurricanes is downward (see the figures below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 1: Global Hurricane Frequency (all & major) \u2014 12-month running sums. The top time series is the number of global tropical cyclones that reached at least hurricane-force (maximum lifetime wind speed exceeds 64-knots). The bottom time series is the number of global tropical cyclones that reached major hurricane strength (96-knots+). Adapted from Maue (2011) GRL. https:\/\/climatlas.com\/tropical\/<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Figure 2: Figure: Last 50-years+ of Global and Northern Hemisphere Accumulated Cyclone Energy: 24 month running sums. Note that the year indicated represents the value of ACE through the previous 24-months for the Northern Hemisphere (bottom line\/gray boxes) and the entire global (top line\/blue boxes). The area in between represents the Southern Hemisphere total ACE. https:\/\/climatlas.com\/tropical\/<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, contrary to the claims made by ProPublica, there is no upward trend in hurricane frequency or intensity, and thus claims that climate driven migration, leaving \u201cpopulations in disarray,\u201d is completely false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claim made about wildfire in Paradise, CA causing \u201cclimate driven migration,\u201d is equally false. Paradise burned to the ground during the 2018 Camp Fire<\/a>, which was due to lack of maintenance on Pacific Gas and Electric<\/a> power lines. That was combined with a weather event causing high winds<\/a> on a single day and low fuel moisture to create the perfect storm of flammability. California\u2019s drought at the time was certainly a contributing factor, though drought has been historically common across the region, due by periodic weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These patterns have occurred for millennia and are not a feature of man-made climate change. In fact, tree ring studies<\/a> of the western United States show past mega-droughts lasted as long as 200 years at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report<\/a> from California State University notes active forest management is a key practice in preventing wildfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the reasons we\u2019re observing more fires is because of 100 years of poor Forest Service policy where we didn\u2019t allow prescribed fire or wildfires to burn,\u201d says Dr. Craig Clements, a San Jose State University meteorology and climate science professor and director of the school\u2019s Fire Weather Research Laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, poor forest management and poorly maintained power lines affected by weather led to the wildfire devastation in Paradise, not climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ProPublica simply failed to do basic research, relying on opinion and storytelling instead of factual reporting to weave yet another misleading story where climate change is blamed as part of the ongoing narrative told by the media blaming climate change for everything bad, even when the facts clearly say otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article by the website ProPublica titled\u00a0The Flooding Will Come \u201cNo Matter What\u201d\u00a0linked to Hurricane Katrina, storm refugees, and climate change, claiming that the storm was evidence of the beginning of a \u201cclimate migration\u201d in America. The connection is false. Data refutes a climate connection to any particular hurricane or trend in migration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":319439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818566,691818104,691828262,691828261,691818913],"class_list":{"0":"post-319431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-hurricane-katrina","9":"tag-hurricanes","10":"tag-migration","11":"tag-propublica","12":"tag-wildfires","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=2520%2C1460&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1l67","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":211517,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=211517","url_meta":{"origin":319431,"position":0},"title":"Barbados Plays the Climate Card","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/02\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest Essay by Kip Hansen \u2013 1 August 2022 Barbados is a small island nation with a checkered history \u2013 once a British colony growing tobacco and sugar and now an independent republic that has de-throned Queen Elizabeth as Queen of Barbados with her acquiescence, replacing her with a President\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-02-190200.png?fit=834%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-02-190200.png?fit=834%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-02-190200.png?fit=834%2C417&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-02-190200.png?fit=834%2C417&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":268902,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268902","url_meta":{"origin":319431,"position":1},"title":"The Atlantic: \u201cVermont Was Supposed to Be a Climate Haven\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/23\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2020, a\u00a0ProPublica\u00a0analysis identified Lamoille as the one county, across the entire United States, that could be most protected from the combined effects of climate change, including sea-level rise, wildfires, crop damage, and economic impact. 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