Source: Ryan Saavedra
A prominent meteorologist once again threw water on wild claims being made by democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who claimed without evidence that a flood in Washington, D.C., was the result of “the climate crisis.”
Ocasio-Cortez made her remarks in response to a local area reporter who was reporting on heavy rain and some flooding that was occurring around the D.C. area.
“Unprecedented flooding is quickly becoming a new normal. Despite that, Republicans are tripling down on fossil fuels w/no plan to transition off them, or make the critical infra investments we need to prep for the climate crisis,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Each day of inaction puts more of us in danger. Climate change intensifies flooding, wildfires, & extreme weather. It’s more than 1 day or 1 storm; it’s all of them. Places are flooding where they haven’t before; there are 90-degree days in Alaska in June. The GOP will mock & sow confusion until it’s their home swept away.”
Ryan Maue, who has a Ph.D. in meteorology, responded to Ocasio-Cortez in a series of social media posts, writing: “First a tornado and now a flash flood. The Congresswoman does not miss an opportunity to turn a weather event she experiences into a political statement and blame Republicans. She’s right that cities need to invest in infrastructure but a slow-moving t-storm isn’t ‘climate.'”
“Where do you start the conversation with this premise? AOC: ‘It’s more than 1 day or 1 storm; it’s all of them. Places are flooding where they haven’t before; there are 90-degree days in Alaska in June. The GOP will mock & sow confusion until it’s their home swept away,'” Maue added in a follow-up tweet.
“You should resist the emotional temptation to blame EVERY weather event on climate change. Consult the National Academies ‘bubble chart’ on our understanding & confidence of weather events + climate change: Severe convective storms = low confidence & low understanding,” Maue continued. “Extreme rainfall is still low/medium confidence and medium understanding — pretty clear that in a warmer world, rainfall extremes will increase. But, attributing an individual t-storm or slow-moving area of rain to climate change is (currently) beyond our capability.”
