There have lately been a number of statements by various climate alarmists and politicians in the news claiming confidence that recent weather events appear to be caused by climate change. Well no kidding. Since weather is part and parcel of climate, weather changes definitely will follow climate change. One wonders why the alarmists didn’t claim absolute certainty. After all, no-one disputes the established fact that the climate is changing (always has, always will).
The reason seems obvious - “climate change” is alarmist code for “global warming”, a term they’re reluctant to use since the warming didn’t even come close to predictions and then stopped some 17 years ago, as the IPCC recently admitted. So the obvious question then is, why are these extreme weather events only happening now, why didn’t they show up 15 years ago?
Extreme weather, like climate change, happens all the time but with varying intensity and frequency. A check of the records reveals that both have been in decline over the past century so when there’s an up-surge in activity, it’s unfamiliar and catches the attention. And since human memory is quite short compared to climate cycles, the facts can easily be exaggerated. For example, contrary to numerous claims, “super-typhoon” Haiyan was not the “strongest storm ever”, it wasn’t even the strongest to hit the Philippines coming in at no. 7, the strongest on record being typhoon Joan in 1970.
Climate alarmists like to exploit such events to their advantage and put the blame on fossil fuel usage. The tactic is nothing new. A few centuries ago when weather extremes struck, alarmists also cried that this had never happened before, it wasn’t natural and blamed it on witches. There’s a whiff of medieval fanaticism in the way the blame game is being conducted.
All the rhetoric about extremes seems to be a tactic to avoid any discussion of the actual topic - the cause of climate change. When pressed, alarmists will claim that global warming is the cause but the real question is, what caused the global warming? That’s the debate that the alarmists avoid whenever possible because the science is abundantly clear that the warming (and cessation of warming) is part of a natural cycle.
Art Betke
Prince George
