Month 8, Day 29: Falls ekwivalents maykz jernalizm ezee!

The LA Times ran an AP story about this summer’s bizarre weather.

I also sent a copy of this letter to the Associated Press’ contact line, with a request that they forward it to the author.

Mary Esch notes that meteorologists don’t see the recent planetary heat wave as a sign of global warming, and also mentions that “atmospheric scientists” are increasingly concerned about anthropogenic climate change. This apparent conflict should have been addressed by the author, who fails to point out that while no single weather event can be unambiguously attributed to global warming, climatologists have been predicting for decades that the greenhouse effect would trigger weirder and weirder weather, world-wide. Climatic prediction is based on statistical analysis; weather prediction is based on local and regional measurements. Given that their predictions have been repeatedly vindicated, it is irresponsible to suggest an equivalence between the overwhelming consensus of thousands of climate scientists (a consensus decades in the making)…and the apparently contrary opinion of Accuweather’s Brian Edwards, a young man who (as a little research shows) received his B.S. in Meteorology two years ago.

Warren Senders