{"id":463067,"date":"2026-08-15T07:50:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=463067"},"modified":"2026-08-15T07:50:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:50:03","slug":"the-loneliness-epidemic-is-not-caused-by-climate-change-pbs-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=463067","title":{"rendered":"The Loneliness Epidemic is Not Caused by Climate Change, PBS News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent story from The Conversation (via PBS News), \u201cClimate change may be making us lonelier. How heat waves and extreme weather disrupt social connections<\/a>,\u201d claims that the loneliness epidemic is made worse by climate change because increasingly common severe weather is forcing people to stay separate. This is ridiculous. While it\u2019s true that young adults report more isolated feelings than past generations, it\u2019s not because weather is getting more extreme. It is not. People are isolated due to cultural changes, often preferring online relationships and forms of communication over in-person, interpersonal interactions. Extreme weather in the past also interrupted communication and routines, and it didn\u2019t cause mass isolation the way that the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns did and social media does. Also, since extreme weather has not become more frequent or severe, it can\u2019t be causing more isolation and loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social work researcher Fiona Doherty from the University of Tennessee wrote the Conversation article based on interviews and research she and her colleagues did with other social workers and residents of rural Appalachia. Much of the evidence for her claims come from anecdotal comments from interviewees, which is unreliable as a base for scientific research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doherty says, correctly, that \u201c[s]evere storms, heat waves and wildfires can shut down the social life of a community, flooding out festivals<\/a>, canceling community events<\/a> and keeping people indoors<\/a>.\u201d This is true, but her follow up to that obvious comment is that this is \u201cevidence of how climate change isn\u2019t just changing the environments we all live in, but also impeding our ability to connect with one another,\u201d and worsening the loneliness epidemic, is nonsense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would presuppose that severe storms, heat waves, and wildfires did not occur before whatever period she claims is representative of \u201cclimate change,\u201d which probably in this case are the decades following industrialization and the widespread use of fossil fuels. During this period, she claims, extreme weather has become \u201cmore common and disruptive,\u201d listing extreme heat, floods, hurricanes, drought, and wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not possible in this short post to go into detail about why each of those weather and weather-related events are not getting worse due to climate change, but I will focus on the ones most applicable to Appalachia; extreme heat and flooding. If you\u2019d like to read about wildfires, hurricanes, and drought, you can read the linked Climate Realism<\/em> posts about this summer\u2019s wildfires in North America<\/a>, the impact of hurricane Helene on North Carolina<\/a>, and drought in Georgia<\/a>, or more generally about the U.S. as a whole, Climate at a Glance: Hurricanes<\/a>, Climate at a Glance: U.S. Wildfires<\/a>, and Climate at a Glance: Drought<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appalachian states have seen some of the least average warming in the country. Tennessee<\/a> is estimated to have seen just a half a degree Fahrenheit warming of average temperature since 1900, West Virginia<\/a> saw just 1\u00b0F, Virginia<\/a> 1.5\u00b0F, Kentucky 0.6\u00b0F. Not one of them has experienced an increase in \u201cextreme heat\u201d days. In fact, recent decades have seen less extreme heat than there was in the beginning of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take West Virginia for example. In the 1910s-1930s, West Virginia saw much higher numbers of days where temperatures were 95\u00b0F or higher. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 1: Observed number of very hot days in West Virginia since 1900. Dots are annual values. Orange bars show averages over a 5-year period, the last bar is a 6-year average. The horizontal black line shows the average of the entire period. Chart from Runkle, J., K. E. Kunkel, R. Frankson, B. C. Stewart, and J. Spaccio. West Virginia State Climate Summary 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Even with this year\u2019s heat factored in, it\u2019s nowhere near the 1930s highs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same is true for the other Appalachian states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, increases in extreme heat cannot be driving increasing feelings of isolation because it is simply not increasing in frequency or duration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, flooding is not getting worse, at least not because extreme downpours are getting worse, though it is possible that aging infrastructure can make the impacts of natural flooding worse than would be otherwise. River gauge data<\/a> from West Virginia, very prone to floods because of topography, show no trend in increased riverine flooding. The worst flood<\/a> in state history, which impacted multiple rivers and set records across the state, occurred in 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Conversation piece admits that the COVID-19 pandemic shut down American (and global) social life, and says that social interaction was declining even before then, attributing this to climate change while saying absolutely nothing about any of the other factors, like the rise of social media and changing cultural practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple studies have found strong links between increased social media use to feelings of isolation and loneliness among users, even though one would think they were more connected than ever. This is not niche information<\/a>, and a professional social worker would definitely be aware of this overwhelming evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather is temporary, not the permanent state of the climate. It is natural and always changing, and has always impacts the way people interact. For every person who can\u2019t make a church function because a road is closed, another family might benefit from staying in by the fire on a blizzardy night. Consider the impact on human mental health of winters in the far north where the sun sets and doesn\u2019t return for weeks. That doesn\u2019t mean that the Earth\u2019s tilt and rotation around the sun is a problem for feelings of human isolation or depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Conversation, and PBS, should be embarrassed for promoting this borderline pseudoscience. We know what is making the loneliness epidemic worse and it\u2019s not climate change or even the weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent story from The Conversation (via PBS News), \u201cClimate change may be making us lonelier. How heat waves and extreme weather disrupt social connections,\u201d claims that the loneliness epidemic is made worse by climate change because increasingly common severe weather is forcing people to stay separate. This is ridiculous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":463069,"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_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A recent story from The Conversation (via PBS News), \"Climate change may be making us lonelier. How heat waves and extreme weather disrupt social connections,\" claims that the loneliness epidemic is made worse by climate change because increasingly common severe weather is forcing people to stay separate. This is ridiculous.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"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":[691818056,691819743,691818514,691844612,691844710,691834614,691821854,691844711,691818750],"class_list":["post-463067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-propaganda","tag-extreme-weather","tag-fiona-doherty","tag-loneliness-epidemic","tag-pbs-news","tag-the-conversation","tag-university-of-tennessee","tag-west-virginia","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1WsP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":461996,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=461996","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":0},"title":"Are you a loser with no friends? Blame climate change and buy a windmill!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/11\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Only an academic could come up with something this stupid. No bar is too low to crawl under in the quest to show Climate-change: Bad, Big Government Spending: Good.","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\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Are-you-a-loser-with-no-friends-Blame-climate-change-and-buy-a-windmill.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Are-you-a-loser-with-no-friends-Blame-climate-change-and-buy-a-windmill.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Are-you-a-loser-with-no-friends-Blame-climate-change-and-buy-a-windmill.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Are-you-a-loser-with-no-friends-Blame-climate-change-and-buy-a-windmill.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Are-you-a-loser-with-no-friends-Blame-climate-change-and-buy-a-windmill.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":306558,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=306558","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":1},"title":"PBS Almost Admits CO2 and Warming Are Good for Crop Production, Almost!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/08\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This PBS piece, hosted by John Yang, is unusual in that the guest on the program, Jonas J\u00e4germeyr, a climate scientist from Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, admitted that carbon dioxide is positively affecting plant growth.","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0-corn-production-and-yield.jpeg?fit=1125%2C727&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0-corn-production-and-yield.jpeg?fit=1125%2C727&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0-corn-production-and-yield.jpeg?fit=1125%2C727&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0-corn-production-and-yield.jpeg?fit=1125%2C727&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0-corn-production-and-yield.jpeg?fit=1125%2C727&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":368941,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=368941","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":2},"title":"Wrong, PBS, Real-World Data Doesn\u2019t Show That a Climate Crisis Is Happening","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/07\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) recently published article by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press (AP), titled \u201cScientists say EPA just needs to look around the world to see the growing dangers of climate change,\u201d\u00a0which says that proof of catastrophic climate change is found in obvious \u201cgrowing dangers\u201d evident for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Associated Press (AP)\"","block_context":{"text":"Associated Press (AP)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=associated-press-ap"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0subsevents_climate.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0subsevents_climate.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0subsevents_climate.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0subsevents_climate.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0subsevents_climate.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":455380,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=455380","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":3},"title":"No, USA Today, 4th of July Heat was NOT \u201cClimate Change.\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/13\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A USA Today story, \u201cWas that climate change? Scientists ponder a deadly July 4 weekend,\u201d claims that extreme heat in some parts of the country over July 4th weekend was caused by climate change, and is part of a pattern of climate-induced July extreme weather events. This is false.","rel":"","context":"In \"4th of July\"","block_context":{"text":"4th of July","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=4th-of-july"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-Copilot-No-USA-Today-4th-of-July-Heat-was-NOT-Climate-Change.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-Copilot-No-USA-Today-4th-of-July-Heat-was-NOT-Climate-Change.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-Copilot-No-USA-Today-4th-of-July-Heat-was-NOT-Climate-Change.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-Copilot-No-USA-Today-4th-of-July-Heat-was-NOT-Climate-Change.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-Copilot-No-USA-Today-4th-of-July-Heat-was-NOT-Climate-Change.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":268401,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268401","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":4},"title":"Wild Weather News Spreads Like\u00a0Wildfire","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/19\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"World Weather Attribution and its alarming report were trumpeted by Time magazine, touted by the NOAA website Climate.gov , and featured by CBS News, CNBC, Scientific American, CNN, the Washington Post, USAToday, and the New York Times, among others.","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\/OIG-38.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/OIG-38.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/OIG-38.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/OIG-38.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":453363,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=453363","url_meta":{"origin":463067,"position":5},"title":"PBS News Is Wrong, Climate Change Is Not Causing Georgia\u2019s Drought","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent PBS News report, \u201cFarmers struggle with crops as climate change makes weather less predictable,\u201d claims that droughts and flooding in parts of the United States, particularly the Southeast, are due to climate change, and are becoming more frequent and extreme. This is false, particularly for Georgia, the area\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\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-PBS-News-Is-Wrong-Climate-Change-Is-Not-Causing-Georgias-Drought.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-PBS-News-Is-Wrong-Climate-Change-Is-Not-Causing-Georgias-Drought.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-PBS-News-Is-Wrong-Climate-Change-Is-Not-Causing-Georgias-Drought.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-PBS-News-Is-Wrong-Climate-Change-Is-Not-Causing-Georgias-Drought.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-PBS-News-Is-Wrong-Climate-Change-Is-Not-Causing-Georgias-Drought.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-wgbieber-stadium-165406-scaled-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=463067"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463078,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463067\/revisions\/463078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/463069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=463067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=463067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=463067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}