{"id":336000,"date":"2024-07-09T13:11:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T11:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336000"},"modified":"2024-07-09T13:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T11:11:30","slug":"cause-or-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336000","title":{"rendered":"Cause or Effect?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newspapers and newscasts are full of this phrase:  \u201ccaused by climate change\u201d.   The web searching apps reveal this with endless links<\/a> to web pages and stories containing that phrase (and more here<\/a>).  This phrase is so ubiquitous that in certain quarters it is used as a joke punchline.   It seems almost anything you can think of has been claimed to be \u201ccaused by climate change\u201d.    Of course, it used to be \u201ccaused by global warming\u201d and that was a joke too:  \u201c10 feet of snow?  Yep, must be global warming!\u201d;  \u201cWife pregnant again?\u201d  \u201cYeah, you know, climate change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For amusement, readers can supply links to online lists of all the crazy things that have been blamed on global warming\/climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very effective climate communicator, who veers closer and closer to the Climate Realist viewpoint with every passing month,  Roger Pielke Jr.<\/a> recently posted a substack  post : Climate Fueled Extreme Weather<\/a>  (at The Honest Broker<\/a>, to which you should subscribe).  Here is an illustration from that post (h\/t Pielke Sr, and the National Research Council):<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Here\u2019s the home-run quote:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s correct one pervasive and pathological misunderstanding endemic across the media and in policy, and sometimes spotted seeping into peer-reviewed scientific research:<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

 Neither climate nor climate change cause, fuel, or influence weather.<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Yes, you read that right.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is a change in the <\/em>statistics<\/em> of weather \u2014 It is an outcome, not a cause<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And one more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWeather can be characterized statistically, but weather does not <\/em>occur <\/em>as a result of simple statistical processes. Weather is the integrated result of at least: dynamical, thermodynamical, chaotic, societal, biospheric, cryospheric, lithospheric, oceanic, vulcanological, solar, and, yes, stochastic processes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ source for the above quotes<\/a>, read it before commenting, its not that long, 1400 words \u2014 5-7 minutes. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author\u2019s Comment:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s it. I leave it to you, readers, to make what you will of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the record, I agree entirely with Pielke Jr.  Climate Change, if there is such a thing, is an EFFECT, an OUTCOME, a RESULT, and is NEVER A CAUSE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever is causing<\/strong> some aspect of the climate, some measurable weather\/climatic phenomenon,  to be statistically different today than yesterday, last month, last year, last decade, last century  is a cause <\/strong>but the change (in the statistic)  itself is not.  For instance, if a cleaner atmosphere is allowing more solar energy to reach the surface of the planet, that could be a cause<\/em> of some statistical change in \u201cenergy reaching the planet\u2019s surface\u201d.  Might be fair to say: \u201cCleaning up the atmosphere allowed more energy to hit to surface of the ocean which caused  an increase is sea surface temperature.\u201d  (Don\u2019t know if this is true, just an example). While sea surface temperature might be considered a \u201cclimate change indicator\u201d, rising sea surface temperature is not caused by climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is my opinion, mostly unchanged over the last decade (here<\/a> and here<\/a>), that we do not understand the over-riding causes and effects in our planet\u2019s climate system.  Much of the climate system is too complex, too complicated, too intertwined while other parts are simply chaotic (Chaos Theory definition) and unable to be teased apart at our current level of understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A changing climate statistic \u2014 for instance the so-called Annual Global Mean Temperature Anomaly Over Land & Sea<\/a> \u2014 is an effect of something (more probably, a whole lot of somethings).   Slightly warmer or colder temperatures, but not the statistic,  will cause some other phenomena to also change, but, I believe, only on a local level \u2014 statistically  higher \u201cglobal\u201d temperatures don\u2019t affect my spring gardening, only actually experienced local temperatures do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s see civil but vigorous discussion in comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The newspapers and newscasts are full of this phrase:\u00a0 \u201ccaused by climate change\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 The web searching apps reveal this with\u00a0endless links\u00a0to web pages and stories containing that phrase (and\u00a0more here).\u00a0 This phrase is so ubiquitous that in certain quarters it is used as a joke punchline.\u00a0 \u00a0It seems almost anything you can think of has been claimed to be \u201ccaused by climate change\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":336004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691818056,691821710,691818087],"class_list":["post-336000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-myths","tag-global-warming","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-191.png?fit=2516%2C1181&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ppm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":268504,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268504","url_meta":{"origin":336000,"position":0},"title":"When Everything is Climate Change, Nothing is Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/20\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This misapplication of the term \u2018climate change\u2019 is emblematic of a broader issue. The catch-all usage of the phrase, is diluting its original meaning, sowing unnecessary panic and misdirecting our attention from real problems.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0LN_Climate-Change-effects_00.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0LN_Climate-Change-effects_00.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0LN_Climate-Change-effects_00.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0LN_Climate-Change-effects_00.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0LN_Climate-Change-effects_00.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":277477,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=277477","url_meta":{"origin":336000,"position":1},"title":"Why Your Local Newspaper and TV Station Get Climate Facts Wrong","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Besides, even using the scientifically (technically) suspect present-day measures of tropospheric warming, such as all the Global Average Surface Temperature metrics, \u00a0Earth is\u00a0not overheating. In fact, the global average surface temperature for 2022 was 1.90 \u02daF (1.06 \u02daC) warmer than the pre-industrial period (1880-1900). [\u00a0climate.gov\u00a0] The pre-industrial average temperature was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0yTTaXqVEGkU.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0yTTaXqVEGkU.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0yTTaXqVEGkU.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0yTTaXqVEGkU.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0yTTaXqVEGkU.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":287621,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=287621","url_meta":{"origin":336000,"position":2},"title":"Keep an Eye Out for AI \u201cClimate Bots\u201d Haunting the Web","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest Essay by Linnea Lueken It appears that \u201cAI bots\u201d are now posting false comments on climate change related articles online. 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