🧵
Happy Monday
I'm going to let you in on a secret
It is out in the open but I doubt you've heard about it

Th most recent CMIP6 modeling studies of tropical cyclones/hurricanes project no detectable changes in storm metrics most associated with damage ... under RCP8.5 ... 1/n
Kreusseler et al GRL look at "integrated kinetic energy" (IKE) as a metric of potential damage and in model projections find "no significant changes in lifetime maximum IKE between present climate conditions and a projected climate scenario"
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
Very important
Kreussler et al support Klotzbach et al 2020:
"minimum in MSLP seems to be a better predictor of IKE in HR than the max wind speed, which tends to support the use of central pressure deficit as a better proxy than max surface winds to estimate TC damage"
Kreussler et al provides additional confirmatory evidence of the robustness of the normalization methods most recently applied in Weinkle et al 2018 for hurricane damage 1900-2017
nature.com/articles/s4189…

This a welcome confirmation of our work
Roberts et al 2020 GRL arrive at consistent results, also using RCP*.5 forcing (interestingly and appropriately) to "enhance the signal"
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
Even under "enhanced signal" of RCP8.5 Roberts et al are unable to detect in projections meaningful changes to TC behavior (only a few hints of small changes)
This passive voice construction made me laugh out loud:

"the relatively short reliable historical record may also be conflating multidecadal variability and climate change signals"

I can say authoritatively that it is not the historical record doing any conflating 😎
Bottom line
On hurricanes . . .

The long-term historical record doesn't support claims of detection of a climate change signal

Most recent, state-of-the art models don't support claims we should now or soon be seeing such signals

Feel free to accept or deny the evidence

/END
PS. None of this argues against any climate policies
I support net-zero by 2050

But what it does mean is that if you are using hurricanes to try to sell climate policies (looking at you @ClimateEnvoy) then you are risking your claim to be well-grounded in evidence and science
PPS
Despite evidence & research the weight of conventional wisdom is heavy

Compare this group of NOAA GFDL authors who say at one place that climate change "probably" increasing intensity (L) & elsewhere it is "premature to conclude with high confidence" (R)

Confusing? Yeah🤷‍♂️

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More from @RogerPielkeJr

23 Apr
🧵
For the 6th time in the past 6 years US tornado counts through 22 April are below average (2005-2020)

I was curious ... does a quiet start suggest a quiet year?

Data: @NOAA @NWSSPC Image
The answer is -- yes -- a quiet start does to some degree suggest a quiet year

Here is the relationship of tornadoes through April 22nd and the year's total

Counts through April 22nd average ~28% of the annual total & regression r^2 is ~0.39

Data: @NOAA @NWSSPC Image
Evidence suggests decreasing tornado incidence

Our work shows a long-term decline in normalized tornado losses (in fact the decline is so pronounced it is evidence in non-normalized data as well)

Data updated from: doi.org/10.1080/174778… Image
Read 6 tweets
22 Apr
😬
When RCP8.5 isn’t bad enough
New Swiss Re climate report

“We use multiplicative factors of 5 and 10 to simulate the increasing severity of outcomes from nonlinearities”

That’s right
Take sketchy model results & then multiply by 5x and 10x to account for “unknown unknowns”
The headline result — 2050 global GDP reduces 18% — is the result of taking economic outcomes of RCP8.5 in a simple econometric model & then ...

[never seen this methodological step before]

... multiplying those results by 10 to account for unknown unknowns

HT @AndrewSiffert
Here is the New York Times on the Swiss Re RCP8.5x10 analysis

“Rising temperatures are likely to reduce global wealth significantly by 2050, as crop yields fall, disease spreads and rising seas consume coastal cities...”

I cannot overstate how bonkers this is
Read 4 tweets
21 Apr
I’ll never forget the 1st time I contacted police on a blog harasser — he threatened gunshots in heads of my children, only to find out he was a college professor & is still harassing me today⤵️

➡️From snark to dark: how harassment took over the internet ft.com/content/b1da22…
Online harassment takes other forms also:
Then there is/was a Twitter “blocklist” that includes me and my followers (taken at some point in time promoted & shared by a lead of the US Natl Climate Assessment & a leading journalist — obviously intended to isolate and marginalize
I’ve seen that online harassment can become real world harassment with real world consequences

issues.org/the-science-po…
Read 5 tweets
20 Apr
For CO2 from energy a 50% reduction from 2005 level equates to a 34% reduction from 2020

➡️Biden plans to cut emissions at least in half by 2030 washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro…
Here is what the reductions would have to look like on an annual basis to meet the Biden 50% (from 2005) CO2 reduction target by 2030
To put those reductions into context, here are US increases/reductions 1991-2020

The only annual reductions > ~3% occurred during global financial crisis and COVID-19, but some other years have been close, sustained annual reductions have not yet occurred
Read 6 tweets
17 Apr
This letter from members of US Congress to Ecohealtth Alliance contains some very interesting information related to a lab leak hypothesis ... it is fair to say that authoritative investigations of a lab leak are now proceeding on multiple fronts ⤵️
republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/upl…
Some highlights and questions:
Does anyone actually have this review?
Here is that framework: phe.gov/s3/dualuse/Pag…
Read 8 tweets
16 Apr
A massive haul of new RCP8.5 studies today
And the beat goes on ... Image
What do such studies mean for the real world? Image
RCP8.5 as BAU and RCP4.5 as mitigation (both improper) continues to be common, example Image
Read 7 tweets

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