Climate Fact Check June 2023 Edition v3
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Washington ExaminerClimate Fact Check June 2023 Edition v3
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Washington ExaminerCLIMATE FACT CHECK: JUNE 2023 EDITION
June 23, 2023 marked the 35th anniversary of Dr. James Hansen’s front-page Senate testimony formally
launching climate idiocy.
But Hansen’s predictions haven’t panned out so well. A point-by-point fact check of it is here.
Ten more false climate claims from June have already gone bust and are presented below.
CANADIAN FOREST
FIRES CAUSED BY
CLIMATE CHANGE? Fact Check. Smoky American skies caused by
Numerous media outlets cynically tried to Canadian wildfires are not new. The historical
link the month’s wildfires in Canada, which record shows Canadian wildfires have darkened
caused the skies across America to turn U.S. skies repeatedly since 1706. Since 1980,
yellow-orange, with climate. The Washington Canadian wildfires have generally been on the
Post, for example, reported: “The power of decline with occasional spikes. Read more…
direct experience can change attitudes on
climate change, researchers say.”
TEXAS HEAT WAVE Fact Check. Texas has suffered extreme and extended
CAUSED BY CLIMATE heat waves before, most recently in the June-August
CHANGE? 1980 heat wave that resulted in 2,000 deaths.
Moreover, heat wave frequency and intensity have
The Washington Post tried to make the link
dramatically declined in the US over the past 90 years.
in “The troubling heat in Texas and its ties to
Read more…
climate change in 5 maps.”
WINE PRODUCTION Fact Check. Since 1990, Canadian grape and
wine production has dramatically increased.
DECLINING BECAUSE Read more…
OF CLIMATE CHANGE?
The Canadian Public Broadcasting company
reported in “Vintners warn a wine shortage
could be coming, as they try to adapt to
climate change,” that: “Sweltering summers
and bitterly cold winters have been hindering
wine production in British Columbia, with
one winemaker warning that climate change
might be cultivating a crisis in the industry.”
Fact Check. As shown in the U.S. Department of
FLORIDA Agriculture (USDA) chart below, Florida’s strawberry
STRAWBERRIES harvests increased nearly 50 percent between 2001
SUFFERING FROM and 2019. Read more…
CLIMATE CHANGE?
Axios reported in “Florida’s strawberry
industry threatened by climate change” that
warmer temperatures are reducing the
amount of time that Florida strawberries are
experiencing ideal growing temperatures.
Fact Check. The New York Times uses
SUMMERS GETTING the 1951-1980 global cooling period as
HOTTER? the baseline temperature and ignores hot
The New York Times reported in “Tracking summers before 1940. As shown below, hot
summers have decline in the US since the
Dangerous Heat in the U.S.” that: “Summer
1930s. Read more…
temperatures have become hotter and more
extreme in recent decades.”
INDIAN HEAT WAVE Fact Check. India is no stranger to heat
A SIGN OF CLIMATE waves. A June 1960 heat wave, for example,
CHANGE? hit 116°F. Further, claims that climate change
About a 115°F heat wave, Bloomberg reported in has made extreme weather events more
“India’s June Heat Wave Deaths Are a Harbinger of likely are based on computer models that
Worse to Come” that: “Scientists estimate climate assume emissions make extreme weather
change has made extreme heat 30 times more more likely, an assumption that has no basis
likely in India and the World Bank has flagged in fact.
India is likely to be one of the first places in the
world where heat waves breach the human
survivability threshold.”
CLIMATE CHANGE Fact Check. A new study in the Journal of Hydrology
reports that the intensity of small rain systems declined
INTENSIFYING RAIN? during the period 2011-2020 as compared to 2001-2010
The New York Times report in “Intensifying and that there is no significant trend in larger systems
Rains Pose Hidden Flood Risks Across the over the period 2001-2020.
U.S.” that: “One in nine residents of the lower
48 states, largely in populous regions includ-
ing the Mid-Atlantic and the Texas Gulf Coast,
is at significant risk of downpours that deliver
at least 50 percent more rain per hour than
local pipes, channels and culverts might be
designed to drain.
BEES DYING FROM CLI-
MATE CHANGE? Fact Check. First, honeybee colony survival
depends on a number of things, especially
The Associated Press reported in “Nearly half of
beekeeper hygiene. Next, Washington, DC
US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling
has never had an 80°F day in January, per the
beekeepers stabilize population” that climate
National Weather Service. While Washington
change was a factor, such as an 80°F-day in Wash- DC has had January days in the 70s, they
ington DC in January. date as far back as 1907.
NORTH ATLANTIC
HEAT WAVE DUE TO Fact Check. First, it curious that the Washington
Post failed to ask the question: Why was the North
CLIMATE CHANGE? Atlantic so warm before the industrial era? Next, the
The Washington Post reported in “Beyond explanation for the warming is a dramatic change in
extreme ocean heat wave in North Atlantic the Atlantic current (as measured by the North
is worst in 170 years” that: “Last month was Atlantic Oscillation Index) that is explained by
the warmest May since 1850 for the Atlantic natural factors other than emissions. Read more…
Ocean around the United Kingdom.”
YOSEMITE WILDFIRE Fact Check. In June 2023, the cause of the
CAUSED BY CLIMATE Yosemite fire was determined as follows:
CHANGE?
In July 2022, the Guardian blamed the large
wildfire in Yosemite on climate change.
We’ll close out by returning to James Hansen’s June 1988 testimony.
As it turns out, June 2023 was 1.53°F cooler in the U.S. than June 1988.
It would be interesting to hear Dr. Hansen explain how June 2023 could possibly so much cooler
than June 1988 despite a doubling of industrial era atmospheric CO2. Though pinged for a response
via Twitter, so far not a peep from him.
Until next month...
Presented by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Heartland Institute, Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC), and Truth in Energy and Climate.