UPDATE: There are some confusionists who don’t know the scientific literature who are misrepresenting this post. I’d just urge people to read it themselves. The key point, as I make clear, is that the NY Times focused its story specifically on why this drought is so hot — but never mentioned global warming at all. Further, as one of the country’s leading climatological experts on Southwestern drought made clear in 2011 Senate testimony on the New Mexico drought (see below):
There is broad agreement in the climate science research community that the Southwest, including New Mexico, will very likely continue to warm. There is also a strong consensus that the same region will become drier and increasingly snow-free with time, particularly in the winter and spring. Climate science also suggests that the warmer atmosphere will lead to more frequent and more severe (drier) droughts in the future. All of the above changes have already started, in large part driven by human-caused climate change.
Another week, another New York Times article on extreme weather that fails to connect any dots whatsoever to global warming for the public. The NYT similarly blew the Arizona wildfire story and the Dust Bowl story.
Now readers have been sending me this double by-lined gem all day: “Drought Spreads Its Pain Across 14 States.” The piece does have a great chart [click to enlarge].
“Dangerously Dry: Nearly a fifth of the contiguous United States has been faced with the worst drought in recent years.”
