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So, I believe in anthropogenic climate change, and I don't doubt that there are areas (California) seeing droughts the likes of which have not been seen in a lo

So, I believe in anthropogenic climate change, and I don't doubt that there are areas (California) seeing droughts the likes of which have not been seen in a long time, but...they are throwing a lot of things together here. In central Texas, where I live, the reservoirs are near to full, because we had a lot of rain in May. The problem is a higher than normal abundance of mosquitoes, and the foliage is all growing out of control because they have the water to do so. We are definitely having issues with power, but that's mostly due to increased population (and other issues related to changing power sources), not from excess heat. Temperatures in central Texas are in the mid 90's, which is not unusual for Texas. There's problems, sure, but not really related to climate change. When scientists try to link anything that is going wrong currently to anthropogenic climate change, they don't convince more people. If anything, they create more skeptics, because people can tell that they're not getting an objective read on the situation. There are probably scientists who are willing to provide a nuanced, balanced read on things, who would probably say that drought and wildfires in California might be related to climate change, but power shortages in Texas are not. They are not the sort of scientists who get their pictures in The Guardian.

nverno 5y ago
> And the reason is linked directly to human caused climate change. Lines like this seem to imply there is a single reason behind climate events, and that single reason is human caused. It's so blatantly false/misleading that anybody will read it as such.
letitbeirie 5y ago
The nuanced, balanced (albeit uselessly high-level) read would be that our systems were designed for more stable weather than we can reasonably expect going forward. As far as Texas' power issues go, climate change certainly isn't helping, but it's hard to blame it for Texas' power issues. Why? Because it's very easy to blame Texas' power market for Texas' power issues. The cold snap in 1989 was colder and longer, but the result was largely the same as if it had happened in Michigan. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/A-tale-of-two-freezes-How-the-Texas-grid-stayed-16005807.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/A-t... Silver lining though for the environment - the invisible hand has pushed 5GW worth of Cold War-era coal plants offline since wind got cheap.
TheAceOfHearts 5y ago
Wasn't the extreme cold front in Texas which left a bunch of people without power ultimately a result of climate change as well? When dealing with complex interconnected systems there's rarely going to be a single factor to which all problems can be attributed.
- rossdavidh 5y ago
  Proving that any one weather event is a result of climate change is tricky, but I don't doubt that you're correct. The Guardian was talking about the current summer issues, though, where we don't have widespread outages yet but they are asking people to cut back on electricity usage because we are at risk of it. And having 97 degree weather in Texas in June is just not unusual, so that cannot plausibly be attributed to climate change. Four days of freezing weather and several inches of snow, in central Texas, is another kettle of fish, and is quite unusual. But as I read the article that wasn't what they were referring to.
orev 5y ago
The framing of the question in this way will always result and an answer of “you can’t say that this specific event was caused by climate change”, and in many ways asking that exact question is a way to discredit the science. Science is based on observation of events and then making a theory that can predict likely outcomes in the future. From that perspective, the accurate question becomes “is this event consistent with what we predict the effect of climate change will be?”, and from that point of view, the answer is absolutely “YES”.
hadlock 5y ago
Climate change is just that - climate change. Some areas will get drier - the western US, some areas will get wetter. Dallas is a prime example. Most journalists are getting fed drought stories out of California, but it's clear that Texas is getting more rain than it did two decades ago. "More rain" doesn't sell ad clicks though.

nverno 5y ago

> And the reason is linked directly to human caused climate change. Lines like this seem to imply there is a single reason behind climate events, and that single reason is human caused. It's so blatantly false/misleading that anybody will read it as such.

letitbeirie 5y ago

The nuanced, balanced (albeit uselessly high-level) read would be that our systems were designed for more stable weather than we can reasonably expect going forward. As far as Texas' power issues go, climate change certainly isn't helping, but it's hard to blame it for Texas' power issues. Why? Because it's very easy to blame Texas' power market for Texas' power issues. The cold snap in 1989 was colder and longer, but the result was largely the same as if it had happened in Michigan. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/A-tale-of-two-freezes-How-the-Texas-grid-stayed-16005807.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/A-t... Silver lining though for the environment - the invisible hand has pushed 5GW worth of Cold War-era coal plants offline since wind got cheap.

TheAceOfHearts 5y ago

Wasn't the extreme cold front in Texas which left a bunch of people without power ultimately a result of climate change as well? When dealing with complex interconnected systems there's rarely going to be a single factor to which all problems can be attributed.

rossdavidh 5y ago
Proving that any one weather event is a result of climate change is tricky, but I don't doubt that you're correct. The Guardian was talking about the current summer issues, though, where we don't have widespread outages yet but they are asking people to cut back on electricity usage because we are at risk of it. And having 97 degree weather in Texas in June is just not unusual, so that cannot plausibly be attributed to climate change. Four days of freezing weather and several inches of snow, in central Texas, is another kettle of fish, and is quite unusual. But as I read the article that wasn't what they were referring to.

orev 5y ago

The framing of the question in this way will always result and an answer of “you can’t say that this specific event was caused by climate change”, and in many ways asking that exact question is a way to discredit the science. Science is based on observation of events and then making a theory that can predict likely outcomes in the future. From that perspective, the accurate question becomes “is this event consistent with what we predict the effect of climate change will be?”, and from that point of view, the answer is absolutely “YES”.

hadlock 5y ago

Climate change is just that - climate change. Some areas will get drier - the western US, some areas will get wetter. Dallas is a prime example. Most journalists are getting fed drought stories out of California, but it's clear that Texas is getting more rain than it did two decades ago. "More rain" doesn't sell ad clicks though.