Yes, Climate Change Is Making Storms Like Hurricane Ian Worse

As Hurricane Ian barreled toward the central Florida gulf coast this morning before making landfall as a Category 4 storm, the conservative media-sphere was having a field day at the expense of CNN anchor Don Lemon. On his program Tuesday night, Lemon had asked NOAA National Hurricane Center acting director Jamie Rhome about the effect climate change was having on the approaching storm. Rhome said he wanted to talk about the current situation facing Florida and that he would talk about climate change at a later time. Lemon tried again, asking about the link between climate change and increasingly intense hurricanes. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I don’t think you can link climate change to any one event,” Rhome responded. “On the cumulative, climate change may be making storms worse, but to link it to any one event, I would caution against that.” In taunting headlines that followed, conservative media outlets framed the comments as a clapback against what they continue to portray as climate alarmism on the part of mainstream news outlets. Fox News wrote that Rhome had “shut down” Lemon on climate change. The U.K.’s Daily Mail wrote that he had been “schooled AGAIN [sic].” When contacted for comment, the National Hurricane Center flatly refuted any implication that Rhome meant to downplay how climate change is making hurricanes like Ian more dangerous, saying only that his immediate focus had been o...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Climate Is Everything extreme weather healthscienceclimate Source Type: news