Posted on 24 May 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the Pandemic

Extreme weather presents an even bigger threat when economies are crashing and ordinary people are stretched to their limits.

Locusts swarmed crops on a farm in Katitika, a village in Kenya, in January. Credit: Ben Curtis, AP

The hits came this week in rapid succession: A cyclone slammed into the Indian megacity of Kolkata, pounding rains breached two dams in the Midwestern United States, and on Thursday came warning that the Atlantic hurricane season could be severe.

It all served as a reminder that the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 325,000 people so far, is colliding with another global menace: a fast-heating planet that acutely threatens millions of people, especially the world’s poor.

Climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent and more intense. Now, because of the pandemic, they come at a time when national economies are crashing and ordinary people are stretched to their limits.

What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the Pandemic by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, May 23, 2020

Click here to access the entire article as originally published on the New York Times website.

Toon of the Week...

Climate Feedback Article Review...

Video from PragerU makes several incorrect and misleading claims about climate change

Video Analyzed: Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say by Richard Lindzen, PragerU, Apr 18, 2016

Three scientists analysed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be ‘very low’.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Inaccurate, Misleading.

Video from PragerU makes several incorrect and misleading claims about climate change, Edited by Niki Forrester, Climate Review, May 23, 2020

Coming Soon on SkS...

• Did Michael Moore Film Bash Renewable Energy? (Thom Hartmann)
• Coronavirus pandemic leads to profound cutbacks in fossil fuel use (Karin Kirk)
• SkS New Research for Week #21 (Doug Bostrom)
• All Renewable Energy Plan for Europe (Michael Sweet)
• A brief history of climate targets and technological promises (Duncan McLaren)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #22 (John Hartz)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #22 (John Hartz)

SkS Week in Review... 

• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #21 by John Hartz (SkS Original)
• The Underground Solution To Climate Change (YouTube Video)
• Michael Moore's Movie is Garbage (YouTube Video)
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #20, 2020 by Doug Bostrom (SkS Original) 
• COVID-19 Shows that Research Institutions Need Stronger Scientific Integrity Policies by Lauren Kurtz (CFDL Defense Fund Reprint)
• PETM climate warming 56 million years ago strongly tied to igneous activity  by Howard Lee (Adapted from article published on Quanta Magazine)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #20 by John Hartz (SkS Original)

Poster of the Week...