EPA – The Gift That Keeps On Giving

http://spriteland.wordpress.com/

People will find ways to see what they expect to see.

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

Let’s see if that “Six of the 10” claim makes sense.

If we look at hurricanes making landfall in the US (which is the jurisdiction of the EPA) their claim is nonsense. The 1880s was the winner, with four years in the top ten. One hundred thirty years ago, when CO2 was 290 ppm.

Year     #

1886    7
2004    6
2005    6
1909    5
1933    5
1985    5
1869    4
1880    4
1887    4
1888    4

Seven of the top ten occured more than one hundred years ago!

So where did EPA get their numbers from? Good question – but almost undoubtedly their data was derived from satellite and radar systems which didn’t exist before thirty years ago. Hurricanes making landfall is the only apples-to-apples historical comparison we can make.

In other words, the EPA claim is almost meaningless. They expect to find more hurricanes because of CO2, and they do! It is called confirmation bias.