When a draft version of the recent National Climate Assessment had been published in a non-profit internet digital library in January, people did not pay too much attention. That changed when president Donald Trump pulled out from the Paris Climate Accord in June. Earlier this month, The New York Times re-published the leak, see PDF here.  Reportedly, scientist are concerned that Donald Trump would likely suppress the information.

Trump is a climate change denier, a species which is more common in the US than in other parts of the world. Why is that so? Well, climate change denial is desperately needed by the gas, oil and coal industries in the US. Green and sustainable energy has not been developed much in the previous decades in America. He knows that his promise, Make America Great Again, can never be achieved when having to compete with much more developed technologies in, say Europe.

Trump is also obsessed with fake news allegedly being spread in the mainstream media (MSM) not realizing that his preferred media outlets just produce fake news, not so much MSM. MSM do meet at least certain investigative journalistic standards. Not so biased outlets on the right side of the political spectrum. Trump probably knows why he has to smear the former when calling for attention to the latter.

At least the executive summary of the draft Climate Science Assessment Report should be carefully read, in particular by so-called climate sceptics in the US. For example, the report states that,

[m]any lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are primarily responsible for observed climate changes in the industrial era. There are no alternative explanantions, and no natural cycles are found in the observational record that can explain the observed changes in climate. (Very high confidence)

…

Natural variability, including El Niño events and other recurring patterns of ocean-atmosphere interactions, has important climate impacts on short time scales, but its influence is limited on global and regional climate trends over longer timescales (that is, a decade or more). (Very high confidence)

…

The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation and extreme heat events are increasing in most regions of the world and will very likely continue to rise in the future. Trends for some other types of extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and severe storms, vary by region. (Very high confidence)

Just this summer saw very high numbers of casualties due to flooding and landslides caused by the monsoon in south Asia. A prolonged period of record high temperatures and humidity in the Mediterranean. And I noticed, after having followed temperature extremes in the Middle East, the highest number of days with temperatures exceeding 50 °C (122 F) ever.

Climate change denial, as it puts the future of future generations of humans at risk, must be challenged.

21 August 2017 @ 6:45 am.

Last modified August 21, 2017.