New media reports blame climate change for the “unprecedented disaster” unfolding in Houston, alleging that climate change-related factors undoubtedly “worsened the flooding.”
Never missing an opportunity to preach of the evils of climate change, the UK-based Guardian newspaper claims that the Houston storm surge “was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.”
Oddly, the Guardian acknowledges that “some of” the sea level rise is due to human disturbance such as oil drilling, but immediately throws the bulk of the blame to “climate change.”
The essay is titled “It’s a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly” and was written by Michael E Mann, “distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University.”
Mann goes on to argue that climate change has also caused sea surface temperatures in the region to rise, producing an increase in average atmospheric moisture content. “That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding,” he asserts.
Mann then makes a gratuitous and baseless claim that all of this somehow necessarily results from anthropogenic climate change.
“Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It’s creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere,” he alleges. “The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.”
The Guardian’s conclusion?
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