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Droughts: Just the facts

12 Feb 2020 | Science Notes

There's a standard litany about the evil effects of greenhouse gases that usually starts with “droughts, floods, hurricanes” and whatever other apocalyptic nightmare comes to mind next. When the recitation starts, it is handy to have information near at hand to bring some reality into the discussion. So we welcome the decision of the Global Warming Policy Forum to begin preparing short fact sheets summarizing the standard data and mainstream science on important climate topics, beginning with droughts. The data show no upward trend around the world since the 1950s, the IPCC doesn't claim such a trend exists, the number of people around the world who die from droughts has plummeted since 1900, and despite the continuing occurrence of droughts, world food production has soared over the past few decades.

We recommend keeping the GWPF drought fact sheet close at hand. The increasingly strident tone of modern alarmism is taking a toll on peoples' mental health, especially that of school children who are being bombarded with irresponsible apocalyptic rhetoric. We wish it weren't happening and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to stop it, but we can at least equip each other to respond with facts and data. When people are ready to learn, you should be ready to teach.

One comment on “Droughts: Just the facts”

  1. Thank you for the link. I do check the GWPF website, but probably not often enough. I believe it was at their 2015 Annual Lecture that Patrick Moore first articulated his hypothesis about the main source of the decline of CO2 from the carbon cycle over hundreds of millions of years - shellfish and corals that deposit the calcium carbonate in their shells at the bottom of the oceans when they die. Your readers should check it out. https://www.thegwpf.org/patrick-moore-should-we-celebrate-carbon-dioxide-2/

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