The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters and Climate Change

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“Hurricanes are the most violent storms on the planet, and strong storms are getting stronger thanks to warmer oceans. … climate change is worsening the impact of storms like Hurricane Dorian, with higher storm surges, increased rainfall and rising storm intensity.” So said CNN on September 4.

The Guardian played an even more alarming tune under the headline “Climate change is making hurricanes even more destructive”: “Hurricane rainfall could increase by a third and wind speeds boosted by up to 25 knots if global warming continues.”

Yale Climate Connections purports to explain “How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous.”

It’s an old song. The Union of Concerned Scientists said in 2008 (in an article updated early this year), “Cutting edge research is beginning to be able to attribute individual hurricanes to global warming.”

And hurricanes are just one of a variety of weather-related disasters allegedly human-induced global warming allegedly amplifies. Others include droughts, floods, tornadoes, and wildfires.

Are such claims by climate alarmists credible?

Dr. Roger Pielke Jr., Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for nearly twenty years, tests them and finds them wanting in The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters & Climate Change.

In six short, clear chapters, Pielke demonstrates that the hard data show no significant upward trend in the frequency or intensity of severe weather events. While the monetary value of property damage they cause is rising, the reason is entirely that humanity has created more property for them to harm.

Meanwhile, human deaths from severe weather events are declining—largely because their property protects them. As Pielke puts it, “the data don’t support claims that the rising costs of climate disasters are due in any part to a human influence on climate” (emphasis added).

What makes this book extraordinary is that Pielke doesn’t question the“mainstream” opinion about human-induced global warming. He agrees with it. But he thinks “many champions of action on climate change” (which he thinks is needed) “are basing their campaigns on strong claims that are at odds with the current state of scientific knowledge.”