No, Associated Press, Extreme Weather Events in a Single Year Are Not Climate Change
By
Anthony Watts
December 23, 2024
A recent article in the Seattle Times, titled “From water destruction to deadly heat: Associated Press photographers capture climate change in 2024,” presents a series of photographs depicting various natural disasters and extreme weather events from 2024, attributing these occurrences to climate change. While the Associated Press (AP) imagery is compelling, it’s a false narrative because the article doesn’t distinguish between short-term weather events and long-term climate trends. Instead, the article conflates the two completely separate natural processes.
From Climate at a Glance, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) defines climate as the “average weather conditions for a particular location and over a long period of time,” typically over 30 years. In contrast, weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions. Therefore, individual weather events, no matter how extreme, do not constitute climate change.
Extreme weather events have occurred throughout history, independent of human-induced climate change. For instance, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the Great Blizzard of 1888 were catastrophic events that predate significant industrial CO₂ emissions. Attributing modern extreme weather solely to climate change overlooks the natural variability inherent in Earth’s climate system.
https://climaterealism.com/2024/12/no-associated-press-extreme-weather-events-in-a-single-year-are-not-climate-change/
