A CDN reader reports (see comment here) that he tried to post an excerpt from the IPCC regarding drought frequency on Facebook, only to have the FB censors delete it and refuse to let him share it despite three appeals because in their view it was “deceptive.” Ah those rotten IPCC merchants of disinformation. Apparently all those times people talked about “the world’s top scientists” they didn’t mean the IPCC, they meant the kids with arts degrees who run the vast Facebook thought-policing machine. So let’s keep them busy. If they really know their way around the drought issue, try posting this and see if they make you take it down. “Are droughts getting worse due to global warming? Toss a nickel and then tell me. That’s about as much certainty as the so-called science will give you. For Canada and the US, the 1930s dust bowl continues to be the worst decade on record. That was 90 years ago--hardly proof of the advancing effects of global warming.”
And now the envelope please. And yes, this one comes from the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, Chapter 2, page 214, which reads:
Sheffield and Wood (2008) found decreasing trends in the duration, intensity and severity of drought globally. Conversely, Dai (2011a,b) found a general global increase in drought, although with substantial regional variation and individual events dominating trend signatures in some regions (e.g., the 1970s prolonged Sahel drought and the 1930s drought in the USA and Canadian Prairies). Studies subsequent to these continue to provide somewhat different conclusions on trends in global droughts and/ or dryness since the middle of the 20th century (Sheffield et al., 2012; Dai, 2013; Donat et al., 2013c; van der Schrier et al., 2013).
So are droughts getting worse? The science can’t say - it’s 50/50. But that detail won’t stop the social media censors from imposing a party line. So we dare you to post it on Facebook, and tell us what happens.