• Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Climate Change Dispatch
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Climate Change Dispatch
No Result
View All Result

Media Push Debunked Claim That Megadroughts Are Much Worse Today

by Anthony Watts
February 16, 2022, 9:55 AM
in News and Opinion
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
2
Share on FacebookShare on XwitterShare on Linkedin

npr megadrought falseDozens of news outlets today carried the alarming “news” that climate change is causing the worst drought in centuries in the Western United States. This is false.

Research shows droughts in the Western United States have been far more intense and prolonged historically than the one the West is currently experiencing.

The New York Times (NYT) version of the story is, titled “How bad is western drought? Worst in 12 centuries, study finds.”

NPR’s coverage of the research was titled, “Study finds western megadrought worst in 1200 years.”

Both dramatic headlines refer to a new paper in Nature Climate Change (NCC), titled: “Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021.” Lead author Park Williams describes himself as a “bioclimatologist.”

The paper performs tree-ring analysis (of roof beams) from Southwestern archeology sites dating back to 800 A.D., with Chaco Canyon being one of the sites used for data.

According to the paper, data were spliced together with living tree-ring cores to form a complete SW US regional wet/normal/dry picture spanning about 1,200 years.

It is well established that coniferous trees grow better annually in wet conditions, yielding wider rings rather than dry conditions that give narrower rings, so as far as Williams’s analysis goes, the basis of the science is sound concerning historical representations of precipitation.

The tree-ring data tells a story of five major Southwestern US droughts since 800 AD. The claim is that the worst is at present; the next worst was a period that lasted 23 years in the late 1500s.

To a reasonable person, this should mean these periodic western droughts have little to do with climate change.

However, there is some trickery afoot. Williams has redefined megadrought and ignored available data to support his assertion that humans are causing a megadrought.

As Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville explained in an email to me:

These guys redefined a megadrought down to 22 years so it was optimized to fit the most recent 22 years. Had they used 30+ years, they don’t have a result.

The alpine lakes of the Sierras are fine now, but during the real megadroughts, these lakes dried up so that forests could grow in the lake beds.

The use of models is inadmissible because they fail in producing natural variability which was the cause of the previous megadroughts.

Further, this NCC paper isn’t anything new. Climate Realism discussed similar claims in the post, “Claims of Southwest USA ‘Megadrought’ Are All Wet.”

That story used a graph (Figure 1 below) from another tree-ring study:

Figure 1. 1,200 years of tree-ring data showing droughts and duration.

Figure 1 above uses data from the 2007 E.R.Cook et al. study showing severe droughts lasting as long as 200 years going back to 1200 years ago.

Meanwhile, at the far right, the drought we’ve experienced in the 21st century is evident and minuscule by comparison.

Williams conveniently forgot to mention those droughts. Maybe he should look at what the Los Angeles Times had to say about it in 1994:

Williams told NPR that the present megadrought is about one-fifth attributable to “climate change.” Note the NPR subtitle: “Human-Caused Climate Change Contributing.”

“Researcher Williams said roughly one-fifth of the current megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are warming the world, speeding evaporation and disrupting weather patterns,” writes NPR.

How did Williams arrive at that conclusion? According to Williams’s analysis, present trees show about 20x greater drought severity than in the late 1500s.

By his reasoning, the difference MUST be completely “climate change”-related rather than natural variability. NYT says so. NCC says so. A bioclimatologist says so.

Williams closed the NPR interview with this gem;

“We cannot let ourselves get tricked by a few wet years into giving up on the progress we’ve been making.”

By “we”, he must mean the USA. It surely isn’t India and China who aren’t reducing CO2 emissions at all. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and cement production by country. Graphic from New York Post.

Reality check: There have been droughts in the West as long as two hundred years, Mauna Loa’s Keeling curve shows no CO2 progress whatsoever, and Williams’s regional research shows normal and wet years will return; but apparently, all these facts are irrelevant to Williams’s viewpoint of “giving up on the progress” if we don’t immediately kowtow to the green agenda of reducing our energy use.

Read more at Climate Realism

  • Truth
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Gettr
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…
Share via
  • Facebook
  • Like
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Skype
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky

Join our list

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

Related Posts

Energy

Report: Biden Likely Unaware Of Harmful Climate Policies His Admin Churned Out

May 28, 2025
Electric Vehicles (EVs)

GM Dumps EV Plan, Pours $888M Into V8 Engines After Biden Mandates Scrapped

May 28, 2025
News and Opinion

Predictive? Study Finds IPCC Climate Models Overstate Warming Up To 4.5°F

May 28, 2025

Comments 2

  1. Steve Bunten says:
    3 years ago

    We had an article in today’s left-wing rag called the Denver Post. Must have used the same article that appeared in the NY Times. But as pointed out in this column real(tm) megadroughts can last two centuries, not two decades.

  2. Spurwing Plover says:
    3 years ago

    NPR.Nazi Public Radio their still financing this leftists Propaganda who like the rest of the M.S. Media are Propagandists for the left

Stay Connected On Social Media

gab-logo

Donate Today

Beating back the alarmist narrative takes time and money. Please donate today to help!

Recent Posts

  • Biden signs executive orderReport: Biden Likely Unaware Of Harmful Climate Policies His Admin Churned Out
    May 28, 2025
    Who’s really behind Biden’s energy agenda? Major executive orders reshaping U.S. policy were never publicly addressed by the president himself. […]
  • Biden visits GM EV plantGM Dumps EV Plan, Pours $888M Into V8 Engines After Biden Mandates Scrapped
    May 28, 2025
    GM pivots NY plant from EV parts to V8 engines as GOP, Trump EPA dismantle Biden’s electric vehicle push and California’s EV mandate. […]
  • earth sunrisePredictive? Study Finds IPCC Climate Models Overstate Warming Up To 4.5°F
    May 28, 2025
    New study finds IPCC climate models overstate warming nearly 4.5°F, with benchmark models proving far more accurate in long-term forecasts. […]
  • Government Accountability OfficeSenate GOP Accuses Govt Watchdog Of Trying To Save California EPA Waiver
    May 28, 2025
    Republicans are criticizing the GAO for showing bias and overstepping its bounds in trying to stop Congress from repealing California’s EPA waiver. […]
  • NYC traffic congestionFederal Judge Blocks Trump’s Bid To Kill NYC Congestion Toll
    May 28, 2025
    A federal judge blocked Trump’s bid to kill NYC’s congestion toll, preserving New York’s climate law and traffic-cutting program—for now. […]
  • Gavin Newsom PresserGavin Newsom Is Seething After Congress Repealed California’s Gas Car Ban
    May 27, 2025
    Gov. Newsom is steamed after Congress repealed a Biden EPA waiver letting California ban gas-powered cars and said he'll fight back. […]
  • Capitol Hill DCCongress Resurrects Fight Against The Climate Cult’s Regulatory Assault
    May 27, 2025
    Congress eyes bills to rein in climate overreach, challenge secret science, and expose hypocrisy fueling the elite-driven climate change narrative. […]
  • mosquitoNo, Climate Change Isn’t Behind Britain’s Mosquito Fears
    May 27, 2025
    The Guardian asserts that climate change will make the UK more hospitable to mosquito-borne diseases, ignoring established drivers. […]
  • wind turbine blades landfill‘Green’ Waste Piles Up As Solar Panels And Wind Turbines Pollute Landfills
    May 27, 2025
    Solar and wind waste is piling up with no clear plan for disposal, raising new questions about the cost of going green and the myth of net zero. […]
  • new orleans blackoutMISO Ignored Warnings Before Holiday Blackout Left Blue City In The Dark
    May 27, 2025
    Nearly 100,000 lost power in New Orleans after MISO cut the grid, raising alarm over blackout risk tied to green energy replacing coal and gas. […]

Get Instant Email Notifications

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email either instantly or daily. Check your Junk folder for any verification emails upon subscribing.

Submit a tip

Please enter your email, so we know you're human.

Books We Like

very convenient warming

exposing great lie

Have a suggestion? Let us know! We swap out books based on your input. We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. See here.

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

© Portions copyright Climate Change Dispatch

Share via
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Climate Change Dispatch