Hurricane Harvey did not cause climate deniers, but it certainly made them worse

By Sou
1 September 2017
(HotWhopper) – Science deniers were so put out by the deadly rains from Hurricane Harvey that they lost their sense of sight. Now we can’t say that Hurricane Harvey caused climate science deniers, they’ve existed since we changed climate in a big way. We can say that Hurricane Harvey hasn’t improved them.Joe Bastardi, a science denying weather forecaster, got all excited and wrote a dumb article that was copied and pasted in the deniosphere. Danny Hayes first alerted us here at HotWhopper. It took some time before it was copied and pasted at WUWT (archived here). It was in response to an article in The Guardian, by Professor Michael Mann. The Guardian article had the following:

In case you’re a science denier, let me repeat that headline and sub-head:

It’s a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadlyWe can’t say that Hurricane Harvey was caused by climate change. But it was certainly worsened by it

In the article, Professor Mann explains why the flooding from Harvey was worsened:

• Sea level rise – partly from climate change and partly from subsidence
• Higher sea surface temperatures meant more moisture in the atmosphere
• Higher sub-surface sea temperatures gave even more fuel to Harvey […]

A strawman from Joe Bastardi and Anthony Watts

Joe Bastardi and Anthony Watts decided to build a strawman. The ludicrous nature of their attempt was immediately apparent. You’ll recall how the Guardian article had in the sub-headline and the article, that “We can’t say that Hurricane Harvey was caused by climate change.”  So what was Anthony and Joe’s headline? Look and see.

Michael Mann’s claims that Harvey was caused by global warming are destroyed by an operational meteorologist

Michael Mann specifically wrote that we can’t say that (it’s an ill-posed question).  Not only did Anthony and Joe base their article on a lie of a strawman, they even had evidence their article was a lie, right up top. The article even had a picture of the Guardian headline that showed that Anthony and Joe had built a strawman:

The really strange thing is that Joe Bastardi put up a quote from Michael Mann, then proceeded to say that what he wrote was wrong, while simultaneously showing that what Professor Mann wrote was right. [more]

Hurricane Harvey did not Cause Climate Deniers, but it certainly Made Them Worse