With Hurricane Idalia bearing down on Florida, climate activists and some media outlets are already blaming climate change for the storm. In reality, hurricane activity—and especially hurricane activity affecting Florida—is not getting any worse as the planet modestly warms. Hurricanes and other extreme weather events occur in spite of climate change, not because of it.
Global hurricane data show there has been a significant and consistent decline in the number of hurricanes during the past 40 years. Moreover, there has been no increase in the cumulative energy from all hurricanes and tropical cyclones. While climate pundits fill the airwaves with theories about warmer ocean temperatures fueling more frequent and more powerful hurricanes, the verifiable storm data show no increase at all. Indeed, scientists have long suspected that warming global temperatures facilitate wind shear, which pulls hurricanes and tropical storms apart.
Not only is there no global increase in hurricanes, but Florida in particular is enjoying a golden age of hurricane avoidance. Florida recently underwent an 11-year period without a single hurricane strike, which was the longest such period in recorded history. Yet when a hurricane finally put an end to Florida's record hurricane drought, climate activists and many media outlets predictably blamed climate change.
No matter what good news there is on the subject, climate activists and their champions in the media are committed to their apocalyptic narrative. It's why you probably don't know that the United States as a whole has enjoyed a remarkable lack of major hurricanes in recent years; from 2009 through 2017, the U.S. experienced fewer hurricane strikes than during any other time period in recorded history. Just as importantly, the United States recently underwent a record 11 years without a major hurricane strike of Category 3 or higher.
Yet when Hurricane Harvey finally struck and ended the record time frame without major hurricanes, climate activists and the mainstream media predictably blamed climate change for the storm.
They simply refuse to acknowledge the truth, which is this: The facts show climate change is not causing a worsening of hurricanes.
But to those invested in the truth, this should come as no surprise. Objective scientific data show a similar lack of climate change impacts on other extreme weather events.
Spring tornado season led to a bevy of media articles claiming climate change is supercharging tornadoes—yet, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data show a remarkable decline in strong tornadoes during the past 50 years.
Government officials may have failed to protect their citizens from wildfires in Maui, yet NASA satellite measurements show a remarkable global decline in wildfires in recent years, continuing a pattern of global wildfire decline stretching back more than a century.
Meanwhile, the United States in 2017 broke a record for the least amount of drought ever recorded, and then that new record was broken in 2019. And the U.S. is currently undergoing its longest period in recorded history without at least 40 percent of the country experiencing drought. Objective scientific data show recent heatwave frequency is quite normal, and heatwaves are not nearly as severe as was the case in the early 20th century.
And yet, for all of these incidents, climate activists and their champions in the media repeat their false mantra over and over: Whether it's the wildfires in Maui, the temperatures this summer, or drought, you can count on them to blame climate change.
Regarding hurricanes and other extreme weather events, it is easy to fall for media-identified experts providing scientific-sounding theories about how climate change is making extreme weather events worse. Fortunately, we can fact-check such claims against objective scientific data. Regarding hurricanes and virtually all other extreme weather events, the objective data show climate change is, at worst, having no impact on these events.
But it's even more likely that climate change is making hurricanes and other extreme weather events less frequent and less severe—at least, for those who care to consult the facts.
James Taylor (JTaylor@heartland.org) is President of The Heartland Institute.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
