L A Times dishonest, deceptive and flawed claim that Hurricane Harvey is linked to man made climate change

Guest essay by Larry Hamlin

The L A Times published yet another of its climate alarmist campaign articles unsupported by scientific data attempting to politicalize Hurricane Harvey as being connected to man made climate change.

This article is just another of the papers flawed attempts to falsely portray the occurrence of natural climate and weather events as being driven by greenhouse gas emissions.

The L A Times long standing schemes to push a purely political and scientifically unsupported climate alarmist agenda are well documented at WattsUpWithThat? in articles noted here, here, here and here.

Unaddressed in this Times political article are presentations by noted climate scientists providing scientific data showing that anyone claiming Hurricane Harvey is driven by man made climate actions “doesn’t have a leg to stand on” as concluded by climate scientist Dr. Judith Curry who assessed historical hurricane data.

Climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer also provided scientific data supporting his conclusion that Hurricane Harvey is an extreme but natural weather event and not a sign of climate change.

Additionally Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. has presented scientific data to Congress, including assessments in the UN IPCC AR5 and IPCC SREX reports showing, no connection between man-made emissions and extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods.

The Times climate alarmist article makes a feeble effort trying to suggest some scientific basis supporting its absurd claims of Hurricane Harvey being linked to climate change but the hyperlinked references are pathetic.

The Times statement of man made climate change creating “stronger” hurricanes references a Washington Post article where the following assertion is provided without any supporting scientific data whatsoever:

“The storm is a bit more intense, bigger and longer lasting than it otherwise would be,” added Kevin Trenberth, a climate researcher with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.”

Furthermore the Times referenced Washington Post article concludes with this less than startling statement:

“So in sum: Harvey’s expected damage will mainly be attributable to the simple fact that it’s a strong summer hurricane that is not only going to hit the United States but will do so along an unfortunate path and is expected to linger, dumping huge amounts of rain. But the climatic and sea level context is also shaping this storm, as is inevitably true for other hurricanes as well. We should neither overplay that nor forget it.”

The Times statement that man made climate change is making hurricanes “quicker to intensify” references a mathematical climate model study which concludes that the study results “imply” that conditions “in the North Atlantic region typically support powerful TC intensities only during the peak hurricane season.”

This conclusion does not support the Times article claim of “quicker to intensify” hurricanes.

The Times article also has climate scientist Michael Mann offer his opinion and speculation on man made climate change driving hurricane behavior based on climate model guess work.

This L A Times article is just their usual climate alarmist politically driven hype which displays the hallmarks of their reporting on climate issues which always involve dishonesty and deception combined with flawed and false claims which are unsupported by scientific data.