This article originally appeared on heartland.org.
Contrary to claims often repeated by environmental radicals, global warming is not responsible for extreme weather events, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Explaining Extremes of 2013 from a Climate Perspective, NOAA???s new report, examined claims global warming was behind various droughts, floods, unusually cold weather and blizzards, cyclones, etc. ??? and found no identifiable connection between them and rising greenhouse gas emissions.
In California, for example, a prolonged drought has been blamed by climate alarmists on global warming. The liberal Center for American Progress and media outlets including the Washington Postand Associated Press have published stories claiming global warming caused or worsened the California drought. NOAA???s scientists beg to differ, writing, ???[F]or the California drought, which was investigated by three teams from the United States, human factors were found not to have influenced the lack of rainfall.???
It would seem President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who regularly cite the California drought as evidence of man???s fiery influence on climate, need to follow the research more closely, since their own scientists disagree with their take on the matter.
Environmentalists follow their own talking points and not the science again when they claim global warming is responsible for extreme cold, surprising blizzards, or heavy snowfall. NOAA could find no evidence linking such events to global warming. NOAA reported, ???Analysis of UK cold spring showed the probability of occurrence may have fallen 30-fold due to global warming.??? In other words, global warming decreased the likelihood of extreme winter storm events.
This was true when looking at the tragic Colorado floods of September 2013, as well. The NOAA report found global warming may be making such tragic events less likely.
If anything is truly alarming in the discussion of global warming, it is the widening gap between what the science finds and what the media, backed by alarmists, report.
SOURCE: Forbes.com
