Climatologist Judith Curry announced earlier this year she would no longer maintain her influential “Climate Etc.” blog. “Climate stupidity” had lost, and it was time to move on, Curry, who has a doctorate in geophysical sciences, wrote in a final entry. [some emphasis, links added]
The issue of whether climate change is indeed real, or to what extent, remains open to debate. Meanwhile, the news media has retreated from its previous focus on climate stories.
Studies show climate change coverage has declined in frequency, and news organizations such as the Washington Post and NPR have significantly downsized their climate desk.
Some outlets, however, appear to be continuing as if nothing changed. For example, the Associated Press published a lengthy article on Monday that follows the old “climate crisis” script.
“Scientists have long warned that the world will experience more intense extreme weather events like heat waves, storms, floods and droughts,” wrote Peter Prengaman, the newswire service’s global climate and environmental news director. “But what once seemed like the realm of fiction is now discussed as a possibility, even an inevitability.”
The narrative doesn’t resonate with audiences as it used to, as evidenced by the declining coverage, which coincided with the changeover from the Biden administration to the Trump administration; and the claim that storms, floods and droughts are increasing is in direct contradiction to the findings of the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The group is an advisory body of the United Nations for assessing the science related to climate change. It was created to provide international policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change.
No detected change for most extremes
The IPCC’s assessment reports are full of dense, highly technical material that’s difficult for those outside the research community to digest, so most people learn about trends in extreme weather from the mainstream media, which has spent years claiming that hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts are increasing across the world.
A recent poll by the left-leaning nonprofit Data for Progress found that 61% of all likely voters, including 72% of Democrats, believe the number of extreme weather events has increased over the past five years.
According to the IPCC, the frequency of heat waves in the U.S. has increased [in certain regions]. [No change has been detected] for flooding, drought, winter storms, and hurricanes. There has also been a decrease in the frequency of cold extremes.
Globally, heatwaves have increased, according to the IPCC, and cold extremes have declined. For tropical cyclones, tornadoes, drought and flooding, there have been no detected changes.
There has also been no detected change in storms, which includes tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones, and severe convective storms.
Top: AI illustration of news media covering extreme weather monitoring.
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