Dear Editor,
It is a mistake to assert that “extreme weather events like flash flooding” “are expected to increase in frequency due to climate change.”
This is one of the few areas of agreement between the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).
In 2012 the IPCC asserted that a relationship between global warming and wildfires, rainfall, storms, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events has not been demonstrated.
In 2013 the NIPCC explained, “in no case has a convincing relationship been established between warming over the past 100 years and increases in any of these extreme events.”
Instead of wasting money vainly trying to stop extreme weather events from happening, we should encourage governments to harden our societies to these inevitable events by burying electrical cables underground, and reinforcing buildings and other infrastructure. Yet, of the ~$1 billion dollars that are spent globally every day on climate finance, only 6% of it goes to helping people adapt to climate change today (ref: Climate Policy Initiative, San Francisco). This is the real climate crisis that should concern us all.
Sincerely,
Tom Harris
Executive Director
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
685 Fraser Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 2R7
Canada
http://www.climatescienceinternational.org
