{"id":35689,"date":"2013-04-17T06:03:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T10:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=35689"},"modified":"2013-04-17T06:03:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T10:03:22","slug":"climate-change-is-worsening-drought-noaa-study-fans-confusion-flame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/climate-change-is-worsening-drought-noaa-study-fans-confusion-flame\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change Is Worsening Drought — NOAA Study Fans Confusion Flame"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first saw the news that the 2012 US drought probably wasn’t caused<\/em> by global warming, I knew the global warming misinformers confusionists\u00a0would blow the story and get caught up in all kinds of anti-science conspiracy theories. Naturally, that’s what they’ve done.<\/p>\n

\"drought<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, NOAA was quite haphazard with this report, knowing full well how much the professional and amateur doubt manufacturers blow up this kind of news to an absurd degree.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I knew that Dr Joe Romm of world-renowned Climate Progress would do a good job responding. And he has<\/a>….<\/p>\n

NOAA has issued a report on a small part of the recent brutal droughts that have hit the United States over the past few years. The report \u2014 \u201cAn Interpretation of the Origins of the 2012 Central Great Plains Drought<\/a>\u201d \u2014 is needlessly confusing, scientifically problematic, and already leading to\u00a0misleading headlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kevin Trenberth, former head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has sent to reporters a Commentary on the report, which I repost below. He concludes:<\/p>\n

“This report has some useful material in it describing aspects of the drought in 2012 in the central US. But\u00a0it is quite incomplete in many respects, and it asks the wrong questions.\u00a0 Then it does not provide very useful answers to the questions that are asked.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep, a big blunder all around, and just when Americans were starting to connect the dots<\/a>, even Republicans<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Dr Romm has some more insightful commentary: “Indeed, it seems odd to do a 44-page report on the drought in the Central Great Plains (in the spring and summer of 2012) when so much of the Great Plains \u2014 and Southwest \u2014 have also been in a brutal extended drought that continues to this day….”<\/p>\n

\"drought<\/a><\/p>\n

“A variety of leading experts explained how human-caused warming worsened the 2011 drought (see\u00a0Warming-Enhanced Texas Drought Is Once in \u201c500 or 1,000 Years \u2026 Basically Off the Charts,\u201d Says State Climatologist<\/a>). And numerous scientific studies have projected that global warming will dry out the Southwest and at least parts of the Central Great Plains”<\/p>\n

For a more detailed debunking, one that delves into the science much more, read the full Climate Progress post<\/a>.
\n