Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Presents Master Class on Hurricane Milton and Climate Misinformation

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) shamefully attempted to cash in on Hurricane Milton as the storm ravaged the Florida coast, spreading false assertions and misinformation to further its aggressive climate change agenda. Presenting a Master Class on deception and sensationalism, the MJS claimed, “the message sent by this year’s hurricane season” is “climate change is here, there are no havens, and it’s deadly and expensive.” If the MJS and author Caitlin Looby had bothered to do research, they’d learn there never was any “climate havens”.

“The science is straightforward and incontestable,” the MJS claimed. In this regard, the article is true. The science is straightforward and incontestable that hurricane events like Milton are becoming less frequent and severe, that warmer temperatures are saving lives, and that the MJS makes Pinocchio look like a legendary truth-teller.

Some facts regarding Hurricanes might help them,

• Tampa is undergoing its longest period in recorded history without a major hurricane strike. The last one occurred in 1921.
• Florida recently underwent a 10-year period without a hurricane strike of any size (ending in 2016), which is by far the longest such period in recorded history.
• From 2009 through 2017, the United States experienced fewer hurricane strikes than during any other time period in recorded history.
• The United States recently underwent a record 12 years without a major hurricane strike of Category 3 or higher (2005-2017).
• Globally, satellite measurements show hurricane frequency has been in decline for the past 35 years, continuing a trend that goes back more than 100 years.

“The message” of Hurricane Milton is that while global warming/climate change is causing a remarkable decrease in hurricane activity, climate change isn’t making all hurricanes disappear. Taking advantage of the fact that a relatively few hurricanes still occur, charlatans like the MJS will peddle misinformation that climate change causes all hurricanes and makes them worse.

Attempting to personalize its climate change alarmism to Wisconsinites, the MJS cited recent wildfires in Canada and the American West, claiming drifting smoke from the distant wildfires killed people in Wisconsin and that climate change caused those wildfires. There is no scientific evidence for this claim and it seems on its face, extremely unlikely that smoke from distant wildfires killed or even sickened anyone in Wisconsin. However, assuming for the sake of argument that people in Wisconsin die from wildfires that occur in far distant places, the science is straightforward and incontestable that wildfires are becoming less frequent and severe as the planet modestly warms. In 1998 NASA satellites began precisely measuring the amount of lands burned by wildfires. According to NASA, the amount of land burned by wildfires declined by 24 percent since 1998. Peer-reviewed studies show the trend has been declining for more than a century. If wildfires burning thousands of miles away – or anywhere else – are truly killing Wisconsinites, we have climate change to thank for saving countless lives as wildfires become less frequent and severe.

Hillary Clinton made news this week by calling on Big Tech to censor and suppress online misinformation. Perhaps Big Tech will be inspired by this call to action and respond by censoring and suppressing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Don’t count on it. In the meantime, we can all learn the truth about climate change here at Climate at a Glance for Teachers and Students.