There is not much new about media hyperbole in weather reporting, but July’s climate alarmism may be more breathless than usual.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media were inundated with posts containing flaming red maps of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. [emphasis, links added]
Like these:
Media hysteria on ‘record’ heat in Europe has been fed by the European Space Agency which recently switched to using ground temperatures rather than traditional air temperatures. So it claimed eg that last weekend in Sicily was 48, not 32 as it really was. https://t.co/HVcktEp29C
— Mark Higgie (@MarkHiggie1) July 20, 2023
Hey gobby take a look at the latest heat map of Europe. 😡😡😡 #ClimateCatastrophe pic.twitter.com/adyg4PFKQN
— Patrick Henry (@PatrickBHenry) July 17, 2023
Temperature forecasts for Europe in the coming days, according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts#AFPgraphics @AFP pic.twitter.com/jT2jqw6qfB
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 18, 2022
“July 2023 will probably be the world’s hottest month in hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” said top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt.
One Twitter user (with 22,000 followers) claimed, “After the hottest day and week, we are now experiencing the hottest month ever (in about 120,000 years, based on paleoclimatology). As we keep warming the planet, we will soon experience global temperatures not seen in the past million years!”
🌍🌡📈
After the hottest day and week, we are now experiencing the hottest month "ever" (in about 120,000 years, based on paleoclimatology).As we keep warming the planet, we will soon experience global temperatures not seen in the past million years!https://t.co/P9JOi0YNLB pic.twitter.com/zqpgveAZHs
— Leon Simons (@LeonSimons8) July 18, 2023
When questioned about the justification for his claims, the tweeter responded that scientists had “discovered there was a glacial period, which many people know about from a movie called Ice Age.”
Imagine substantiating scientific claims by referencing a Hollywood movie! Such is the sorry state of critical thought.
These commentators conveniently ignore below-average temperatures in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and large swaths of Russia.
In fact, people in my Indian city wore sweaters during the same week despite it being the middle of a tropical summer.
Even in the U.S., temperatures have not been as dangerous as portrayed.
Chris Martz, a meteorologist, notes that “the entire Lower 48 is only nine-hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit above average [relative to 1991-2020]. Month-to-date temperatures are much cooler this year than just last year and are nothing compared to 1980 or 2011.”
The summer of 2023 has been so hot in the U.S. that the entire Lower 48 is only nine hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit above average [relative to 1991-2020]. Month-to-date temperatures are much cooler this year than just last year and are nothing compared to 1980 or 2011. https://t.co/I2Kd5RE7we pic.twitter.com/qieO3frWsW
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 22, 2023
Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an expert on polar bears and their habitats, observed that as for the Arctic: “Ice has not been steadily declining or rapidly melting as human-caused CO2 levels have increased.”
The summer and winter Arctic sea-ice levels show no declining trend since 2007 and 2003, respectively.
So, how do climate alarmists get away with constant fearmongering? Manipulated data easily mislead an average person with little knowledge of paleoclimatology. And there have been plenty.
For example, the notorious “hockey stick” graph that erased past warming to make modern temperatures appear unprecedented is viewed by many as scientifically accurate despite being thoroughly debunked.
Between 2019 and 2021, 350 peer-reviewed papers showed that there is nothing unusual about today’s warmth.
Furthermore, the current dominant narrative about the relationship between CO2 and temperature is rooted more in politics than science.
Temperatures were much warmer in earlier periods when CO2 levels in the atmosphere were well below today’s concentration.
Speaking to Australian media, geologist Ian Plimer says, “We are being fed an enormous load of rubbish … If you look back in the past, we can see … that every time we’ve had an ice age, we’ve had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now, so it’s clear that carbon dioxide cannot drive global warming.”
Also central to the debate over modern warming is the accuracy of temperature readings that have been compromised by artificial heating from urban landscapes, which have grown around thermometers that once resided in rural locations.
This well-established phenomenon is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect.
Dr. Roy Spencer has shown how most of the temperature increase in the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) is influenced by UHI.
“UHI warming is virtually the entire GHCN-reported warming signal since 1880,” with little land-based warming until 1980, says Dr. Spencer.
The scary weather stories of the dozens of state-funded and left-leaning media outlets across the globe have as much reality to them as children’s tales of ghosts and goblins.
Read more at American Thinker
Some areas of Southern California have recently received two feet of snow. Though I’ll be the first to acknowledge that a single event does not indicate a long term trend, it is ironic that this snow happened in July when the media is loudly proclaiming it is the hottest summer ever.
In 2015 the media kept producing big headlines of “hottest ever.” Such headlines make the average person assume 3 to 5 degrees. What the media carefully concealed was the records were being broken by 0.03 degrees. From the this article, “The summer of 2023 has been so hot in the U.S. that the entire Lower 48 is only nine hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit above average [relative to 1991-2020].” Most readings including those in 2015 are given in Celsius, so the recent record breaker of 0.09 F translates to 0.05 C. The accuracy of the readings is generally thought to be plus or minus 0.03 C. This is hardly the 3 to 5 degrees that would be assumed by the average person and shows that the media is continuing to be deceptive.
From the article, “average person with little knowledge of paleoclimatology.” One fact not known by the average person is that the three hottest years in the last 100 years are cooler than 88% of the years in the past 10,000.
Summers are Hor Winters are Cold and in between lay the switch from one to the other and all our Industries Cars,Planes,Ships,Trains,Subs and Backyard BBQ’s have no effects except in the minds of Eco-Freaks hooked on Wacky Weed