Hurricane Matthew may be wreaking havoc on the Southeast coast, but its real Category 5 effect seems to be the liberals scrambling to link the storm to "climate change."
“Matthew has already set a number of records?—?and global warming is giving it a boost,” Joe Romm, ThinkProgress’ climate editor, wrote.
“Hurricane Matthew, a record-shattering storm that is unusual for October, is a reminder of climate change’s potential to turn seasonal weather events into extreme, year-round threats,” echoed Huffington Post reporter Lydia O’Connor….
“We expect to see more high-intensity events, Category 4 and 5 events, that are around 13% of total hurricanes but do a disproportionate amount of damage,” Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Guardian.
“The theory is robust and there are hints that we are already beginning to see it in nature,” said Emanuel, who recently signed a letter with 374 other scientists basically endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“On our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution, NOAA researchers have determined that parts of the East Coast would see Sandy-level storm surges every year by mid-century,” warned Romm, who’s also a climate scientist. “We simply cannot cut carbon pollution fast enough.”
And as might be expected, Hurricane Hillary has jumped aboard the global-warming bandwagon with her own Category 5 speech after Florida was struck last month:
“Another threat to our country is climate change. 2015 was the hottest year on record and the science is clear: it’s real, it’s wreaking havoc on communities across America. Last week’s hurricane was another reminder of the devastation that extreme weather can cause and I send my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by Hermine. But, this is not the last one that’s going to hit Florida given what’s happening in the climate…."
Looking at it from hindsight It was unclear from Clinton's Sept. 6 speech whether the "last one that's going to hit Florida" was supposed to be Matthew or her manatee GOP opponent, who presided over a massive rally in the Sunshine State 20 days later. But Clinton made it clear that Hurricane Donald was part of the problem, not the solution:
When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified to be our President.”
Unfortunately the liberal enthusiasts for linking Matthew's might to global warming–whether they be Michael Mann or Hillary Clinton–can't seem to muster up agreement from the scientific establishment. From the Daily Caller:
But that’s not what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that same year. The IPCC is usually cited as an indicator of where the “consensus” is on climate science.
So what does the IPCC say about hurricanes?
“Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century,” the IPCC found in 2013. “No robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes counts have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin.”
“In summary, confidence in large scale changes in the intensity of extreme extratropical cyclones since 1900 is low,” the IPCC found.
It’s also worth noting Matthew is expected to break a more than 4,000-day streak of no major hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. Hurricane Wilma in 2005 was the last major storm to make landfall on the U.S. coast.
And just for the record, hurricanes in early October are far from "unusual." The Natonal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that "peak of the hurricane season" lasts until the middle of the month.