House Democrats’ climate change hearing is based on “inaccurate” information that’s “not in accord with current science or consensus,” according to a scientist.
A Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee will hold a hearing Tuesday on natural disaster policy “in the wake of climate change.” However, Democrats are under fire for making claims on the hearing’s webpage that don’t line up with the facts.
Atmospheric scientist Ryan Maue, a hurricane expert, tweeted that the Democrats’ hearing “spreads lies” about the scientific consensus on climate change and hurricanes. The House subcommittee is chaired by California Rep. Harley Rouda and includes Green New Deal champion New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a member.
Maue pointed out that major scientific assessments cast doubt on claims global warming is increasing hurricane frequency or intensity.
“This is not in accord with current science or consensus anywhere = fraud,” Maue said of House Democrats’ climate claims, which relies on information on information posted online by environmental activists.
Maue took issue with Democrats’ claim that “due to climate change, ‘the number of hurricanes that reach Categories 4 and 5 in strength has roughly doubled’ since the 1970s” — a claim that doesn’t line up with scientific assessments from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other organizations.
NOAA, for example, says the rising trend in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes in the North Atlantic is based on data that’s “not reliable for trend calculations, until they have been further assessed for data homogeneity problems, such as those due to changing observing practices.”
Global Category 4s and 5s have not doubled and several papers discuss why e.g. detection, incorrect analysis.
This is spelled out in detail at NOAA GFDL website, IPCC reports (my research cited) and if you ask any other reputable tropical scientist.
Democrats linked to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) website, which points to a 2005 study on hurricanes and global warming. Based on that paper, the website claimed that “[s]ince the mid-1970s, the number of hurricanes that reach Categories 4 and 5 in strength has roughly doubled.”
“Among the many studies included on that page is a link to a 2005 peer-reviewed Science study looking specifically at the increase in intensity of Atlantic hurricanes,” Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at UCS, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The language our webpage uses to characterize that study could be clearer in describing the results and the time period in question,” Ekwurzel said. “On the same page, we also discuss and link to a broad range of more recent studies.”
UCS changed the language on its website after being contacted by the DCNF. The updated website reads, “one 2005 peer-reviewed study showed a large increase in the number of North American hurricanes that reach Categories 4 and 5 when comparing the most recent 15-year period to the prior 15-year period.”