Via POLITICO’s Morning Energy – May 21, 2013:
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif. – Chair of Senate Environment & Public Works Committee) took to the Senate floor and invoked the Oklahoma tornadoes in her speech on global warming.
“This is climate change. We were warned about extreme weather. Not just hot weather. But extreme weather. When I had my hearings, when I had the gavel years ago. -It’s been a while – the scientists all agreed that what we’d start to see was extreme weather. And people looked at one another and said ‘what do you mean? It’s gonna get hot?’ Yeah, it’s gonna get hot. But you’re also going to see snow in the summer in some places. You’re gonna have terrible storms. You’re going to have tornados and all the rest. We need to protect our people. That’s our number one obligation and we have to deal with this threat that is upon us and that is gonna get worse and worse though the years.”
[Boxer] also plugged her own bill, cosponsored with Sen. Bernie Sanders that would put a tax on carbon. “Carbon could cost us the planet,” she said. “The least we could do is put a little charge on it so people move to clean energy.”
And then there’s the shameful rant from US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse yesterday.
Here’s a germane question for these geniuses.
Tell us, what could any tax, law, edict, or protest have done to stop yesterday’s tornado outbreak? And what makes this one somehow different from the F5 Oklahoma city tornado of 1999 that also hit the city of Moore?
What made this somehow AGW enhanced or different from the F5 tornado that destroyed the Oklahoma city of Snyder in 1905, or the 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak which produced an F5 striking Blackwell, Oklahoma, killing 20, with another F5 from the same storm striking Udall, KS, killing 80?
Tell us you Canutian meteorological geniuses, how could you have changed the outcome yesterday?
For those who live in the real world, reference these from NOAA:
US Strong to Violent Tornadoes (EF3-EF5) – 1950 to 2012;
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) – Click the pic to view at source
are below average. US Inflation Adjusted Annual Tornado Trend and Percentile Ranks;
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Storm Prediction Center- Click the pic to view at source
are currently below average. US Tornadoes Daily Count and Running Annual Total;
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Storm Prediction Center- Click the pic to view at source
….are currently well below average.
And when is the hottest part of the year in the USA? July and August of course. When is the peak tornado season? In the spring when it is cooler. Seasonal heat is not aligned with tornadic activity.
![tornadoes_bymonth[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tornadoes_bymonth1.png?quality=75)
Andrew Revkin at NYT Dot Earth has a thoughtful essay on how city planning (or lack of it) likely contributed to this disaster. He closes with:
I’ll add a final thought about the persistent discussion of the role of greenhouse-driven climate change in violent weather in Tornado Alley.
It’s an important research question but, to me, has no bearing at all on the situation in the Midwest and South — whether there’s a tornado outbreak or drought. The forces putting people in harm’s way are demographic, economic, behavioral and architectural. Any influence of climate change on dangerous tornadoes (so far the data point to a moderating influence) is, at best, marginally relevant and, at worst, a distraction.
Read it here: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/a-survival-plan-for-americas-tornado-danger-zone/
UPDATE:
The IPCC says:
“There is low confidence in observed trends in small spatial-scale phenomena such as tornadoes” and on no knowledge on future development of tornadoes: “There is low confidence in projections of small-scale phenomena such as tornadoes because competing physical processes may affect future trends and because climate models do not simulate such phenomena.”
On pages 8 and 113, http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/images/uploads/SREX-All_FINAL.pdf
(h/t to Bjorn Lomborg for IPCC link)
From the Daily Caller:
An often cited 1975 magazine article by long-time Newsweek science editor Peter Gwynne warned of tornadoes as a consequence of “global cooling,” along with other residual effects, including food shortages.
“There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production — with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth,” Gwynne wrote. “The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now.”
There was even a specific passage blaming the “global cooling” phenomenon for a 1974 tornado outbreak.
“Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in thirteen states,” Gwynne wrote.
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“Give us your money because Tornadoes.”
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/1975-tornado-outbreaks-blamed-on-global-cooling/
Is someone going to write to these Senators and educate them on the real facts?
‘the scientists all agreed that what we’d start to see was extreme weather’
Gotta give John Cook his due. Laying the foundation for future political stupidity in the finest IPCC tradition…
I DARE the warmists to come here and defend these fools in the Senate. Come on. Where are you???
By the way – THANK YOU CALIFORNIA! – for sending your best and brightest to the U.S. Senate (sorry Anthony – I know you had nothing to do with that 🙂
The only evidence this tornado has provided is to reaffirm what we already knew – that these people have no shame. They will exploit any and every opportunity to increase their power and intensify their stranglehold.
Sorry for re-submitting what was posed in “Sen. Whitehouse rant” discussion, but the news is too juicy: Rear Adm. David W. Titley has been appointed as a faculty member in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State, beginning July 1 to direct new center on weather risk solutions in the Department of Meteorology.
http://news.psu.edu/story/276851/2013/05/13/academics/navy-rear-admiral-appointed-direct-new-center-weather-risk
I find it quite sickening when politicians exploit human misery to advance political arguments, even when they happen to be right, which she isn’t.
If they were trainable they wouldn’t be socialists. It about redistribution of wealth from the common folks to their rich friends. This is why politicians invest millions to get jobs that pay thousands, it’s about the stealing.
Too many people actually believe that the truth matters to Boxer. The only thing that matters to her – indeed, to at least 80% of senators – is their own reelection and power. She does not need to believe this twaddle, she merely needs to believe that speaking this way will be believed by the low information voters. The last few elections encourage her in this belief.
It can all be explained easily: She’s Barbara Boxer.
Look at her record in DC. This isn’t new.
These “claimers” care nothing about facts only getting more tax money.
” But you’re also going to see snow in the summer in some places. ”
Is there any actual evidence climate scientists made such statements before we started seeing snow later in the season?
Severe weather? The past was much more extreme as I can confirm having read tens of thousands of contemporary British observations from the 11th century onwards as research for my various articles. Here is a short taster over a decade. What we see here is probably an early transition from the MWP towards the LIA. The mostly settled weather then reasserted itself for the next couple of hundred years. These come from the annals of the Met office library and are mostly from Matthew Paris a monk.
1228 inundations of rivers in Dec Jan and Feb –in Worcester- such that no one then living had ever seen the like in their time
1229 severe winter ‘unusually bitter, waters so frozen horsemen could cross upon the ice, great snow afterwards earth covered for several days.’
1231 March to October hardly any rain anywhere in England-great drought
1233 wet summer from 23 March with great inundations of rain through the whole summer destroying warrens and washed away the ponds and mills throughout almost all England. Water formed into lakes in middle of the crops where the fishes of the rivers were seen to great astonishment and mills were standing in various places they had never before been seen.
1233-1234 severe frost from Christmas 1233 to Feb 2 1234 destroying roots of trees to four foot down then rest of year very unseasonable
1234 third unseasonable year
Wet weather in autumn choked the seed and loosened it.
1236 great floods in Jan, Feb and part of March that no one had seen the like before. Bridges submerged, fords impassable, mills and ponds overwhelmed and sown land meadows and marshes covered. Thames flooded palace of Westminster so small boat could be navigated in the midst of the forecourt. And folk went to their bed chambers on horseback
Followed by dry summer with intolerable heat that all lasted four months. Deep pools and ponds were dried up and water mils useless.
1237 great rains in February, fords and roads impassable for 8 successive days
Turbulent year stormy and unsettled
1238 great floods in many parts probably December
Cloudy and rainy in beginning until spring had passed then the drought and heat were beyond measure and custom in two or more of the summer months. Great deluge of rain in the autumn that straw and grain became rotten and an unnatural autumn which is held to be a cold and dry season gave rise to various fatal diseases.
1239 very wet weather continually from Jan to March, it has continued for four months without intermission.
1240 dry Jan to March, wet from April to December but fruitful and abundant but wet and rainy autumn greatly choked the abundant crops.
1241 drought from March 25 to Oct 28 drought and intolerable heat. Pastures withered, herds pined away from hunger and thirst
December very cold and bitter weather the like of which no one had seen before, binding the rivers killing large numbers of birds
tonyb
What you need is one of these “B*ll Sh*t” buttons from Roger Pielke Jr.
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/handy-bullshit-button-on-disasters-and.html
lsvalgaard says:
May 21, 2013 at 10:30 am
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/1975-tornado-outbreaks-blamed-on-global-cooling/
——————————-
Note that the 1975 killer tornadoes hit in April.
The 2013 tornado season got a late start, thanks to such a cool spring:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/20246080-418/tornado-season-started-late-this-year.html
How about the super-outbreak in 1974? According to Wikipedia (I’m not vouching for accuracy but this seems correct), there were 30 F4/F5 tornados that were spawned in that outbreak, including the monster that hit Xenia, Ohio and killed 32 people. Wasn’t this back before global warming was a problem?
Stunning ignorance on display…
—————————-
I’m not convinced that it’s ignorance; could very well be intentional misrepresentation to keep the AGW hoax going as long as possible.
I’ll betcha that if incontrovertible proof emerged today that mankind played no role whatsoever in global warming, climate change, extreme weather (or whatever they decide to rebrand it as next), the politicians would not reverse the anti-CO2 regulations they’ve managed to put in place, and would continue to push for more.
Shameless.
This morning’s California Water News carries an article that invokes the 97% to call out those who dispute the orthodoxy:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/may/20/obama-urges-san-diegans-call-out-rep-duncan-hunter/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kpbs%2Flocal+%28KPBS+News%3A+Local+Headlines%29
[begin quote]
Obama Urges San Diegans To ‘Call Out’ Rep. Duncan Hunter On Climate Change Denial
Monday, May 20, 2013
By David Wagner
President Obama’s non-profit launched a website today urging Twitter users to “call out” Republicans in Congress who dispute the science behind man-made climate change. The interactive site helps users find their nearest Congressional climate skeptic and allows them to send these lawmakers a message reading, “Stop denying the science of #climate change. It’s time for Congress to act.”
The site was put together by Organizing for Action (OFA), the group that emerged out of President Obama’s re-election campaign. If the campaign takes off, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter should expect an influx of tweets coming his way.
[…]
Scientists who say humans don’t play a role in climate change are becoming “a vanishingly small” minority, according to the latest survey of climatology research. A study published in Environmental Research Letters last week reveals that more than 97 percent of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals agree that the Earth’s temperature is rising due to human activities.
[end quote]
PS: Note that above linked article on 2013 season is by Seth Borenstein. Maybe the AP has decided to start practicing journalism after having been attacked by the regime for which they previously had propagandized.
Senator Boxer has such amazing wits,
I wonder if all politicians are twits.
Her pronouncements are so stunning,
her intellect is so numbing,
I will just ignore anything from that… blitz.
This is the most worked up I have seen Anthony in a long while. But I fully understand it. I am appalled and sickened by these ghouls as well. They exist purely to revel in the death and misery of others.
Edgar Allen Poe – The Bells.
REPLY: “This is the most worked up I have seen Anthony in a long while.” You have no idea. – Anthony
Sen. Boxer says:”Yeah, it’s gonna get hot. But you’re also going to see snow in the summer in some places.”
This is the AGW theme in toto. Gonna get hot and snow in the summer.
Lord where does it end?
In the name of empiric science I invite Senator Boxer to step in the path of the next strong tornado with a copy of her bill in hands to verify that a carbon tax can indeed stop them.