IPCC Backpedals on Extreme Weather Claims

[Geee]

PJMedia:

Embarrassed by the current decade-and-a-half period without any global warming, those calling for worldwide action to halt climate change have shifted focus to worries about extreme weather events. It makes sense, of course, for alarmists to direct attention away from something that isn’t happening — global warming — towards frightening stories about something that could conceivably be occurring. Unfortunately for the alarmists — but fortunately for the rest of us — both independent scientific observations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s own latest report (released on Monday) make it clear that a warming of the Earth is not leading to an increase in extreme weather. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case.

 

As the newly released “Summary for Policymakers” of the upcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Report indicates, the UN panel seems to be walking back many of its claims, reducing both their estimated effects of global warming and their claims of certainty regarding their predictions.

 

IPCC’s findings regarding extreme weather, for example, are both mundane and admittedly uncertain. For example, the summary notes:

Changes in many extreme weather and climate events have been observed since about 1950.

It would be astonishing if such changes had not occurred. The climate always changes, which no one disputes, and incidences of various types of extreme weather continually rise and fall over time. Thus the use of the ominous 1950 date — signifying the significant rise in global CO2 levels — is at best irrelevant, and in fact is quite deceptive.

The summary continues:

It is likely that the frequency of heat waves has increased in large parts of Europe, Asia and Australia. (Emphasis in original)

That’s three out of seven continents; apparently the other four are just fine. Next:

There are likely more land regions where the number of heavy precipitation events has increased than where it has decreased. The frequency or intensity of heavy precipitation events has likely increased in North America and Europe. In other continents, confidence in changes in heavy precipitation events is at most medium. (Emphasis in original)