This is nonsense. While the impacts of such events, however caused, is of course greater due to increased population and a thirteen-fold increase in man-made infrastructure around the world in the last century, the actual frequency and severity of extreme weather events is not rising overall. In fact, the frequency of many events, such as strong to violent tornadoes in the United States, have been dropping for decades.
According to the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina, the ten deadliest documented tornado events in the U.S. occurred in (most deadly first) 1925, 1840, 1896, 1936, 1936, 1947, 1908, 1899, 1953 and again in 1953 (tied with a 1902 event). With the exception of the record for the greatest amount of rainfall in 72 hours from a tropical cyclone (set in 2007), every major extreme weather record in the world was set many decades ago.
If the forecasts of climate campaigners come true and temperatures rise, we can generally expect less violent weather since weather is driven by the temperature difference between high and low latitude regions and this is expected to decline in a warmer world.
Suzuki and Moola also fail to mention that in complete contradiction to the computer models that fuel concerns about climate, it has been cooling slightly in the 21st century while greenhouse gas levels continue to rise. While real pollution is always a concern, ‘Mother Nature’ is clearly not worried about our relatively puny greenhouse gas emissions.
Tom Harris
Executive Director
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2
Canada
