Science groups debunk media assertions blaming natural disasters on ‘climate change’

A report published Wednesday by a collection of environmental groups and think tanks shattered “climate change” assertions propagated by mainstream media, who they explained are paid to make such claims. 

The Associated Press, for one, says the report, accepts donations specifically for climate coverage. The newswire also admitted earlier this year to accepting $8 million from groups such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation to report on “climate change”. 

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” said AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Price. 

Wednesday’s report, produced by Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Heartland Institute, Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC), slammed “climate alarmists and their media allies” for falsely pinning natural disasters this year on manmade emissions, claims which they said “clashed with reality and science.” 

“There is not a single natural disaster, nor trend in any type of natural disaster that can be credibly linked with emissions or whatever gradual ‘climate change’ may be occurring for whatever reason, including natural climate change,” said the report. “Attributing natural disaster damages to emissions and climate change is without a factual or scientific basis.” 

The report fact-checked ten separate instances of media outlets claiming “climate change” after a natural disaster. 

In one example, the groups cited an article by the New York Times in the summer which sounded the alarm over heat waves in the United Kingdom. The Times blamed the heat on climate change, saying “heat waves around the world are becoming hotter, more frequent and longer lasting.” 

But the fact check noted that according to the National Climate Assessment, heat waves have actually declined dramatically in the US over the past 90 years, making it unlikely that Britain is in danger of global warming. 

“Moreover, during the UK heatwaves, average global warming remained fairly constant at 0.2°C to 0.3°C (0.36°F to 0.54°F) over the 1979-2000 average global temperature, an amount of warming that is not even really measurable,” said the report. 

In November, the Washington Post blamed climate change for 1,700 deaths in Pakistan due to heavy flooding during monsoon season. 

However, “the 2022 monsoon season was within the range of natural variability and the wettest since 1961,” retorted the fact check. “If emissions are to blame, why was it so rainy then? Also average peak monsoonal rainfall actually has declined somewhat since the 1950s. Ongoing deforestation also may have made seasonal monsoon flooding worse.” 

More recently, WaPo also tried to claim that global warming has been causing shorter winters which is why the 2022 World Cup could only hold one of eight skiing races as of mid-November. 

“First, winter doesn’t begin until December 21,” the report explained. “Next, when World Cup skiing started in the 1960s, the season began in January. Now it begins in October, which is early- to mid-autumn. If the competition began in the winter everything would likely be okay because wintertime snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has been increasing since the 1960s.” 

The report fact-checked other climate change alarmist claims made by the media about Hurricane Ian, low water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead, the Yellowstone River flooding, famine on the Horn of Africa, the China drought, and the European drought. 

“Regardless of one’s view of what passes as ‘climate science,’ the good news is that even researchers who believe that ‘climate change’ is a problem acknowledge that the number of weather-related deaths and the cost of weather-related damage are actually on the decline — despite ever-increasing emissions and whatever slight warming may be occurring,” the report concluded.