IN-DEPTH: Climate Experts Criticize Alarmist Rhetoric Over Summer Temperatures

“Extreme,” “hellish,” “broiling,” and “deadly.” These words, and then some, are being used by politicians and media to describe the summer temperatures sweeping the nation.
IN-DEPTH: Climate Experts Criticize Alarmist Rhetoric Over Summer Temperatures
Southern California residents embrace a summer heat wave in Temecula, Calif., on Sep. 3, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
Katie Spence
Updated:
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“Extreme,” “hellish,” “broiling,” and “deadly.” These words, and then some, are being used by politicians and the media to describe the summer temperatures sweeping the nation.

“The hottest month just ended. We witnessed scorching heat, extreme weather events, wildfires, and severe health consequences,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“It’s a stark reminder of the urgent need for collective action to address climate change. Let’s use this alarming milestone to fuel our determination for bold climate action. Together, we can turn up the heat on sustainable solutions and create a cooler, more resilient world for generations to come.”

Myron Ebell, director and senior fellow at the Center for Energy and Environment, said that while June and July were hot in many locations, other places experienced below-average temperatures. Los Angeles, for example, experienced its 10th coolest June on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“Yes, June was hot, July was hot, globally, but not through the roof,” Mr. Ebell told The Epoch Times. “The planet is not boiling. Southern Europe has been very hot. But not everywhere is having record-high temperatures.”

A billboard displays the temperature, which was forecast to reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit, in Phoenix on July 16, 2023. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
A billboard displays the temperature, which was forecast to reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit, in Phoenix on July 16, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Phoenix did have a particularly hot July, with preliminary data showing an average high temperature of 114.7 degrees. The average high temperature from 1991 to 2020 was 106.5 degrees. The temperature readings are recorded at Phoenix-Sky Harbor International Airport, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS).

And Houston experienced a 10-degree-higher-than-average temperature in July, according to NWS data. The station located at the city’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport recorded an average daily temperature of 97.7 degrees for July.

Still, in rural Texas towns such as Water Valley, the temperature swings were nowhere near extreme. The average July temperature there was 99.8 degrees, compared to its prior average of 97 degrees.

John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the director of the Earth System Science Center, said that for long-term temperature accuracy, rural stations with at least 100 years of records are best to follow.

“Regionally, the West has seen its largest number of hot summer records in the past 100 years, but the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest are experiencing their fewest,” Mr. Christy told The Epoch Times.

“For the conterminous U.S. as a whole, the last 10 years have produced only an average number of records. The 1930s are still champs [for producing the most 100-plus temperature days in a year].”

The first dust storm of the monsoon season rolls over Camelback Mountain in the Paradise Valley suburb of Phoenix on July 17, 2023. (Rob Schumacher/USA Today Network via Reuters)
The first dust storm of the monsoon season rolls over Camelback Mountain in the Paradise Valley suburb of Phoenix on July 17, 2023. Rob Schumacher/USA Today Network via Reuters

NOAA’s primary method for collecting data on minimum and maximum temperatures is the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) stations. These are land and surface stations across the globe that measure climate data, and they’re often located in areas of high population and infrastructure.

Mr. Ebell said temperature readings are affected by what’s around the thermometer, including infrastructure and people. To get a truly accurate reading on temperature, you have to examine satellite data, he said.

Recording Temperature

Areas of high population and infrastructure experience higher temperatures, which in turn influence large-scale area average temperatures because most GHCNs are located where people live and work, said Roy Spencer, a climatologist, former NASA scientist, and now a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. That effect, Mr. Spencer said, is called the “urban heat island.”

“As we progress to higher population stations, we find that [the urban heat island] warming effect becomes larger,” Mr. Spencer reported on July 13.

Mr. Ebell agrees: “If you believe the consensus climate scientists, then the urban heat island effect doesn’t really amount to much. But, in fact, it does. And even fairly small places with asphalt will experience that effect.”

To get a more accurate reading of the Earth’s fluctuating surface temperatures in general, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Christy developed a global temperature data set from microwave data observed from satellites. They started their project in 1989 and analyzed data going back to 1979.

“With global coverage by the satellites, we could compute the true globally averaged air temperature,” reads Mr. Christy’s testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in 1997. “Two specific layers have lent themselves to accurate measurements: 1) the lower troposphere, or the lowest 7 km [4.3 miles] of air next to the surface, and 2) the layer at 17 to 21 km [10.5 miles to 13 miles], or lower stratosphere.”
The RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) solar observation satellite. (NASA via AP)
The RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) solar observation satellite. NASA via AP

In 1991, Mr. Christy and Mr. Spencer were awarded NASA’s medal for exceptional scientific achievement for their work.

And in 1996, they received a special award from the American Meteorological Society “for developing a global, precise record of earth’s temperature ... fundamentally advancing our ability to monitor climate.”
Mr. Christy said that recent global satellite readings measured the hottest July in 45 years by about a quarter of a degree. He said an “early and strong El Niño” was a “major factor” in the increase. And the eruption of Hunga Tonga in 2022 sent water vapor into the stratosphere, which could be adding to the extra warming.

“It is hot in some places and not in others,” Mr. Christy said. “Globally, the temperatures continue to creep upward—but note that the 19th century was one of the coldest in the last 10,000 years, so we would expect Mother Nature to bounce back from that, aided a bit by the extra greenhouse gasses whose rise fundamentally indicates more and more people are experiencing longer and better lives.”

In general, since 1979, the Earth’s temperature has been increasing at a steady rate of 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit every 10 years, according to global satellite data, Mr. Spencer said on his website.
Sisters Olivia, 10, and Evelyn Black, 12, play in the Gateway Fountain at Discovery Green park to escape the hot weather in Houston on July 18, 2023. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
Sisters Olivia, 10, and Evelyn Black, 12, play in the Gateway Fountain at Discovery Green park to escape the hot weather in Houston on July 18, 2023. Adrees Latif/Reuters

Climate Messaging

On July 27, President Joe Biden delivered a speech in which he stated that “record temperatures—and I mean record—are now affecting more than 100 million Americans. Puerto Rico reached a 125-degree heat index last month. San Antonio hit an all-time heat index high of 117 last month.”

Mr. Biden used the heat index measurement, which combines air temperature and relative humidity, rather than temperature.

In Puerto Rico, the day that the heat index reached 125 degrees, the temperature was 95 degrees, according to the NWS.
San Antonio reached a 117-degree heat index in June, thanks to three days of 105-degree temperatures on June 19–21, according to the NWS.

Mr. Biden said that his administration views climate change as an “existential threat.”

“I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of climate change anymore,” after this summer, he said. “The No. 1 weather-related killer is heat—600 people die annually from its effects.”

In 2022, NOAA reported that 148 people died from heat-related issues in the United States.
Worldwide, however, cold weather continues to kill more people every year than heat does. Cold is responsible for 4.6 million excess deaths around the globe each year, according to the Breakthrough Institute. Heat is responsible for about 500,000 deaths worldwide.
President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, in Washington on July 25, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, in Washington on July 25, 2023. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Biden said his administration plans to undertake additional steps to “make our nation more resilient in future heat waves.”

His plans include increased inspections in “high-risk” industries such as construction and agriculture, a $1 billion grant from the U.S. Forest Service to plant trees in cities, and a direction to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure buildings are more “efficient” and “heat resistant.”

Mr. Biden said his administration has provided “a record $50 billion for climate resiliency to restore wetlands, manage wildfires, help Americans in every state withstand extreme heat.”

Asked about the messaging regarding the June and July temperatures, Mr. Christy said: “Every summer will see exceptionally hot temperatures somewhere. If it bleeds, it leads. A thorough look, however, at the frequency of hottest extremes indicates little relation to the gradual warming of the Earth, at least for the United States, where we have the best observations to test these claims.”

A heat advisory sign is shown along U.S. Highway 190 during a heat wave in Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, Calif., on July 16, 2023. (Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images)
A heat advisory sign is shown along U.S. Highway 190 during a heat wave in Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, Calif., on July 16, 2023. Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Ebell was less diplomatic, “[Climate alarmists] want to scare us into adopting expensive, pointless policies.”

He said that the Biden administration and climate alarmists aren’t “getting what they want” because the general population doesn’t support their extreme green energy and climate crisis agenda. Consequently, they turn up the rhetoric.

“You exaggerate the effects of global warming, the scare stories about storms and hot weather, and then you downplay the cost—try to explain it’s really not going to cost anything because the government will pay for it,” Mr. Ebell said.

“This is really a kind of battle between conventional energy and renewable energy. And renewable energy isn’t commercially viable. So, people are being forced to use it, to buy it, and there are various ways to force people to do that.”

Mr. Ebell said that polls show the average American is willing to pay $5 to $10 per month per family to support the transition to “greener” energy. But if it gets more costly than that, support dwindles. He added that people are already paying extra for energy.

Mr. Ebell said that since 2000, the world has spent approximately $6.5 trillion on the transition away from oil, coal, and gas. The result is the world’s reliance on fossil fuels has reduced from 82 percent to 81 percent.

“[The United States’] emissions have gone down. Our use of coal has gone down. But global coal demand is at an all-time high,” he said. “Chinese emissions are now higher than the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Australia combined.

Mr. Ebell said he believes climate change is real, but not in the way the Biden administration means it.

“They mean we’re moving into this new, scary world of weather and climate crisis. But that’s all fantasy,” he said.

“The weather is changing all the time, and human beings have something to do with it. We’re in a warming period—it’s warmed up a little bit—but that’s been mostly beneficial.”

Katie Spence
Katie Spence
Freelance reporter
Katie Spence is a freelance reporter for The Epoch Times who covers energy, climate, and Colorado politics. She has also covered medical industry censorship and government collusion. Ms. Spence has more than 10 years of experience in media and has worked for outlets including The Motley Fool and The Maverick Observer. She can be reached at: [email protected]
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