… is from page 147 of former Caltech physics professor and provost – and former Energy Department undersecretary during the Obama administration – Steven Koonin’s excellent 2021 book, Unsettled? What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters:
Floods, droughts, and fires bring great tragedy and sorrow, and their consequences can be devastating. As the world gets more and more connected through communications, we become more and more aware of these events when they happen. But that does not make them “further proof” of climate change. In the end, the data tells us there’s not very much changing very quickly with precipitation, either globally or in the US.
DBx: Does the fact that in August 2022, for the first time since 1997, there were no Atlantic hurricanes or even tropical storms constitute “further proof” that the climate isn’t changing? Of course not, for weather isn’t climate. The fact that weather isn’t climate should be kept in mind when you next encounter, as you surely will, some pundit or politician proclaiming that this flood and that drought and those blizzards are “further proof” that the climate is changing in ways that portend calamity.
