Extreme Flood Events Decreasing In Europe Despite Global Warming, Scientists Find

Since the 1950s the number of lives and the amount of money lost to floods have declined, despite little change to the frequency of catastrophic floods, according to the first comprehensive study of European historical records. If anything, the frequency of “extreme hydrological events” went down during the 20th century, despite global warming. –Oliver Moody, The Times, 30 May 2018

Marine science whistleblower Peter Ridd has stepped up his campaign for a new body to check the quality of Great Barrier Reef science to ensure that billions of dollars of public funding are well spent. Professor Ridd said a quality assurance panel to audit research findings would cost a small fraction of the money already earmarked and would quickly achieve results. Professor Ridd said his motivation for better quality assurance was the so-called “replication crisis”, which was an open secret in the science community internationally. A series of major campaigns to replicate and check recent scientific results had shown consistently that about half were wrong. –Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 26 May 2018 (Paywall)

A conservative think tank that seeks to battle global warming “alarmism” celebrated during President Trump‘s first year in office, according to correspondence obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request. Joe Bast, the co-founder of the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, wrote to allies in January that 2017 had been “a great year for climate realists” due to policies pursued by the Trump administration. –John Bowden, The Hill, 29 May 2018

China’s carbon emissions are on track to rise at their fastest pace in more than seven years during 2018, casting further doubt on the ability of the Paris climate change agreement to curb dangerous greenhouse gas increases, according to a Greenpeace analysis based on Beijing’s own data. Although China has invested heavily in renewable energy such as wind and solar, a key reason for its emissions growth is rising demand for oil and gas due to increased car ownership and electricity demand. —Financial Times, 29 May 2018

The International Energy Agency has said there will be a net increase in carbon emissions due to electric vehicles when considering life-cycle emissions in countries, like India and China, which have a carbon-intensive power generation mix. —Business Standard, 30 May 2018

China is considering a plan to buy more American coal as part of an effort to narrow its trade deficit with the U.S., according to people with knowledge of the matter. More imports by the Asian nation would be a boon for American coal-producing states — including West Virginia — that supported Donald Trump’s presidency on the back of his pledge to revive the ailing industry. —Bloomberg, 29 May 2018