Liberal, Narrative, Oops

A recent paper published in the Nature Publishing Group’s journal Scientific Data has quantified the fraction of the global land surface in varying degrees of drought since 1982... There has certainly been no significant change in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought conditions since 1982, and it looks as though the percentage of land area under abnormally dry conditions or moderate drought has declined over the past 30 years.

  The findings appear to conflict with previous claims of “increasing drought under global warming in observations and models” and that “increased heating from global warming may not cause droughts but it is expected that when droughts occur they are likely to set in quicker and be more intense.” This most recent study suggests global drought conditions are either becoming less of a concern over time, or at the very least, not changing.

Environmentalist, Warming, Liberal, Narrative, Oops

“Based on updated studies, AR4 [the IPCC 2007 report] conclusions regarding global increasing trends in drought since the 1970s were probably overstated.”

Democrat, Warming, Liberal, Obama, Science, Narrative, Oops

The historic drought that blazed across America's corn belt last year was not caused by climate change, a federal government study found. The summer of 2012 was the driest since record-keeping began more than a century ago, as well as one of the hottest, producing drought conditions across two-thirds of the continental United States. Barack Obama and other prominent figures have repeatedly cited the drought as evidence of climate change. But the report released on Thursday by scientists at five different government agencies said that was not the case.

Warming, Liberal, Science, Narrative, Oops

Last year's huge drought was a freak of nature that wasn't caused by man-made global warming, a new federal science study finds. Scientists say the lack of moisture usually pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico was the main reason for the drought in the nation's midsection.

Warming, Science

The good news, Hoerling says, is that this isn't global warming. "This is not the new normal in terms of drought. Texas knows drought. Texas has been toughened on the anvil of droughts that have come and gone. This is not a climate change drought.

Warming, Science, Brilliance, Oops

Former Vice President Al Gore is sounding the alarm about climate change and extreme weather, pointing to the recent floods along the Mississippi River, drought in Texas and wildfires in Arizona.