Science is real. Climate reporters apparently just don't bother to read it
Opinion by Nicholas Clairmont
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15h
As I write, smoke still rises off of Hawaii, and we do not have a final death count from the inferno that has claimed at least 55 lives. This tragedy has taken a toll not only on human lives but also on physical infrastructure and cultural treasures (Lahaina, one of the worst-struck towns, was the seat of the king of the united Hawaiian Kingdom in the early and mid-1800s).
It is for this reason that it would be so ugly to use the disaster as a talking point, especially a talking point that is factually wrong or not supported by the available research and evidence. Nonetheless, that is just what many politicians and media outlets are irresponsibly doing with the Hawaiian fire disaster as they attribute the drought and storm wind conditions that left the Hawaiian islands, and especially Maui, so susceptible to wildfire. In reality, the best actual institutional, peer-reviewed, published science on Hawaiian drought conditions finds that they cannot be attributed to climate change.
Yet Gov. Josh Green (D-HI), speaking on the fires at a news conference, said, “Climate change is here, and it’s affecting the islands.” The Washington Post, in its Climate Morning newsletter, wrote that “in recent months, a climate-fueled drought has also dried out grasses and shrubs on the island, making them more flammable.” The New York Times has a story titled “How climate change turned lush Hawaii into a tinderbox.” Its evidence is a general argument that “as the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters” and a quote from climatologist Abby Frazier, who told the New York Times earlier this year that “there’s likely a climate change signal in everything we see.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/science-is-real-climate-reporters-apparently-just-don-t-bother-to-read-it/ar-AA1f9PCK?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fe87c40236bc4f91845c132c798ad1e1&ei=9
