Blaming Oklahoma tornadoes on global warming is simply wrong

2013-05-23

Bjørn Lomborg was interviewed on Piers Morgan Live, CNN's primetime talk show, discussing the alleged connection between climate change and extreme weather. 

He also issued a statement about the claims that global warming was to blame for the Oklahoma tornadoes:

Numbers show downward trend even as temperatures have increased

Reacting to statements by prominent US politicians, Bjorn Lomborg today said, “Blaming global warming for natural disasters such as this week’s tornado in Oklahoma is simply wrong." Dr. Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, continued, "This is not just unhelpful during a human tragedy. By playing to tasteless politics it ignores the opportunity to find smart solutions.” 

He continued, “The official count of strong to violent tornadoes in the US do not show an increase but rather a downwards trend – approximately one less tornado every two years since 1954 – even as temperature has increased. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that relating events like the Oklahoma tornadoes to global warming is scientifically unsupported.” (See graph and NOAA website, where data was obtained) 

Moreover, Lomborg has launched a new video discussing how blaming last year’s super storm Sandy on global warming is incorrect, unhelpful and diverts attention from smart solutions. “It is reasonable to discuss how to make ourselves more resilient to tornadoes and hurricanes and to debate how to tackle global warming,” said Lomborg, “but using scare tactics simply creates panic, not opportunities for smart solutions.”