Former Vice President Al Gore last week touched off a cascade of indiscriminate warnings about climate change in the wake of the deadly floods that hit Louisiana.
Gore said the massive flooding in the state was an example of "one of the manifestations of climate change" despite the lack of evidence to support the claim, according to a story in The Washington Times.
And, according to the Times, the claim came despite evidence to the contrary from two studies released in August:
- Aug. 8 study by NOAA concluded: "no evidence was found for changes in extreme precipitation attributable to climate change in the available observed record."
- Aug. 10 paper by University of Iowa scientists concluded: "the stronger storms are not getting stronger."
"For the Al Gores of the world, it’s convenient to point to the Louisiana floods, Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina or the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, as evidence of man-made global warming," Nicolas Loris of the Heritage Foundation wrote in The Daily Signal. "The facts, on the other hand, are inconvenient."
Intense rainfall in Baton Rouge and Lafayette killed 13 and forced the evacuation of thousands in a region that has a history of vicious storms. The Times cited a 1962 tropical depression that resulted in 23 inches of rain in three days.
"The fact is that these events can occur without climate change under a similar set of conditions — the Gulf was warm back then, and it rained a lot — so you don't need climate change to explain heavy rains in that part of the country," Chip Knappenberger of the Cato Institute told the Times.
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