An opinion piece by radio station WABE in Georgia asserts that Georgia is among the states most vulnerable to climate change. This is no evidence suggesting that Georgia is, in fact, especially vulnerable to climate change, much less that is it among the states most endangered by it.
WABE’s article cites a new report from the environmental lobbying organization, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which ranks Georgia fifth most vulnerable state to climate change in the United States. In the very first paragraph it becomes apparent that WABE should have checked a few facts before uncritically parroting EDF’s claims. For instance, the very first paragraphs nullify the headline:
The most vulnerable county in Georgia, according to the analysis, is Macon-Bibb, largely because of existing conditions like poverty and poor health.
In Macon, one of the major baseline risk factors is air pollution and the health problems that can be caused from it. Lots of sources have polluted Middle Georgia’s air for a long time: coal-burning power plants, diesel train engines and two major highways. Worsening heat waves due to climate change can exacerbate that pollution.
Poverty and health are local socioeconomic risk factors, not indicators of climate change.
Other factors that EDF claims make Georgians particularly vulnerable to climate impacts is poor infrastructure, which makes the state’s “community resilience” low, poor access to health care, and poor transportation infrastructure. Climate change has nothing to do with how Georgia’s politicians invest their infrastructure resources or how they or their constituents rank public and private spending priorities, like health care and transportation.
Also, there is no evidence air pollution is driven by climate change. It is a man-made effect of industry, manufacturing, and transportation which can vary widely from year to year. EPA data show regulated pollutants have declined dramatically in recent decades. Although the article tries to link climate change to air pollution by saying heat waves are a contributing factor to pollution and that heat waves are driven by climate change. Research and real-world data show that heat waves have neither become stronger nor more frequent during the recent period of modest climate change. For example, figure 1 below, from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), clearly demonstrates that heat waves were far worse in the past than they have been in recent decades.
As mentioned in Climate at a Glance: U.S. Heatwaves, objective data show the all-time high temperature records from heat waves were set in most states in the first half of the twentieth century, decades before anyone was talking about man-caused climate change. In addition, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows no sustained increase in daily summer high temperatures (June-August) in Georgia as shown in Figure 2:
As shown in figure 2, there were far worse and more frequent summer heat waves in the past in Georgia, well before “climate change” became an issue. Clearly, there’s no threat from “Worsening heat waves due to climate change can exacerbate that pollution,” as WABE claims.
Temporary, localized meteorological conditions during heatwaves can stagnate normal wind patterns and air flow, making air pollution hang around longer than it normally would. But weather is not the same as climate, and here WABE and EDF incorrectly conflate the two.
Since NOAA data shows there has been no recent increase in summer heat waves in Georgia and EPA data show pollution itself is in decline, EDF’s and WABE’s attempts to tie climate change induced heatwaves to air pollution problems in Georgia are demonstrably false. As a result, it seems this story is little more than another poorly researched scare story about the supposed harms climate change is causing. There is no factual basis whatsoever for ranking Georgia and the 5th most vulnerable state to climate change.
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If Georgia and the others listed have become so vulnerable to climate change events, shouldn’t a large-scale depopulation trend have begun as people migrate to cooler, supposedly safer locations like the North Central states, Alaska, New England or even Labrador. Except if anything like this is occurring, it’s the best-kept secret since the Manhattan Project.
The only people moving into WK (Wokeachusetts)- other than a few getting high tech jobs- are migrants, otherwise in less woke states known as illegal immigrants- thanks to the governor welcoming them and so many “sanctuary cities”. But now, the state is worried about a housing shortage. They never thought that welcoming migrants might lead to that. The housing shortage is due to: 1) a lack of land to build on, partly due to the enviros trying hard to lock up all the land 2) extremely high labor costs due to powerful labor unions 3) absurdly complex zoning laws and building codes 4) high material costs due to high energy costs due to hatred of fossil fuels.
Ohio is losing population to people moving south to warmer states.
WABE’s Emily Jones is the person of record.
Bless her little heart!
WABE radio is an NPR member station, and it is owned by the Atlanta Public Schools (Board of Education of the City of Atlanta. APS also owns WABE TV (chan. 30), which is a PBS affiliate.
Draw your own conclusions as to the political bent of both and the nature of their broadcast content.
That’s all one needs to know. National propaganda radio. And our tax dollars are paying for this. Along with hundreds of virtue signaling hypocritical foundations created with the fortunes of once great pioneering business founders. Now their money finances socialist clap trap and funds the dismantling of our great nation. Frustrating and galling.
NPR doesn’t fund local broadcasts.
NPR is not funded by the government.
Some NPR stations receive small grants to support public education through their infrastructure.
NPR may receive little direct federal funding, but a good deal of its budget comprises federal funds that flow to it indirectly by federal law. Here’s how it works: Under the terms of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act, funds are allocated annually to a non-governmental agency, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, overseen by a board of presidential appointees. That corporation, in turn, can choose to support original programming produced by public television or public radio — but, by law, must direct much of its $445 million funding (scheduled to top $500 million next fiscal year) to local public television and public radio stations across the country, via so-called “community service grants.”
Here’s where things get tricky. Local stations, if they want to broadcast “All Things Considered,” “Fresh Air” and other programming produced by NPR or competitors such as American Public Radio, must pay for it. Indeed, in its consolidated financial statement for 2021, NPR reported $90 million in revenue from “contracts from customers,” a significant portion of its $279 million and much more than 1 percent. Such revenue was exceeded only by corporate sponsorships, which totaled $121 million. One can think of these funds as federal grants that have been sent from Washington — but returned to it.
The NPR boss in Albany, NY makes about 200K. Not bad for a “non profit”. I’ve noticed this with many other non profits- they just pay everyone more if revenues are up so they make no profit! What a scam!
Every time someone says this or that organization is a “non-profit”, I remind myself that the NFL is a non-profit organization. I honestly can’t think of any organization that handles more money than the NFL, when you include its members (teams). Except maybe the federal government.
Socialism is when the government owns the factories.
Are there any listners/viewers that can make comments to the usual suspects?
Perhaps these morons could explain why Georgia is the subject of net immigration. One would think that it would be losing population because of some impending disaster. The climate alarmists don’t even try to keep their lying consistent with anything resembling fact.
Climate change is the big political cop-out – it’s not our fault that everything is going pear-shaped, it’s climate change (wrings hands and asks for more money).
Now that is a global phenomenon.
But the Good News of “no factual basis whatsoever for ranking Georgia and the 5th most vulnerable state”, is that facts clearly show no “Climate Change” and there are 45 other states with even less vulnerability.
The biggest weather/climate related problem in Georgia in living memory is snow.
I have been there in the snow. They don’t know what to do with it.
Doctors of Climastrology have consulted on the patient symptoms and prescribe the cure-
Climate report says heat-related deaths to rise by mid-century | Watch (msn.com)
Trust them as they have letters after their names-
Calls for heart stent investigation in Australia after concerning US study (msn.com)
It’s an election swing state. Of course it’s vulnerable to climate change. They must convince the voters so they will reliably vote for leftists.
“Also, there is no evidence air pollution is driven by climate change. It is a man-made effect of industry, manufacturing, and transportation which can vary widely from year to year.”
And when all that is shut down- the locals will have cleaner air but few jobs. I think they’d rather keep the jobs.
The so-called “climate scientists” have had climate redefined so it now is just medium-term weather, about 30 years.
They’ll be throwing turkeys out of helicopters next.
One more example showing that we are winning. The CAGW have given it their best shot and came up short. The only thing left is to lie, cheat and scare the crap out of people. We really need to turn the screws on these guys. Go after them with facts and observations, in the end they will run with their tail between their legs, they have nothing to defend themselves with. Now is the time.
One word, here intentionally hyphenated: pea-NUTS!