So which 'One Single Event' ARE you willing to allow to be Climate Change?

[Junkdrawer]

Denying Climate Change one event at a time....

[ananda]

1. Warming and climate change are just scientific facts.

They are occurring and proceeding apace no matter what anyone believes or thinks.

Therefore, it doesn't matter what people think about any particular events as regards warming. It does matter what we think regarding mitigation and adaptation.

Now, if people cannot or will not think about mitigation and/or adaptation, then they will suffer the consequences; and that is very sad and tragic but unavoidable. With current levels of over population, there ARE going to be more disasters and more tragedy and suffering... and as time goes by, these disasters will get more frequent and cover more areas.

Humans WILL adapt to some degree or other, but that adaptation will carry a very heavy price.

[Junkdrawer]

3. You bet. We're all in denial to some extent or another.

Don't know where I read it, but someone said:

"You can always tell the Climate Scientists on campus. They're the ones with antidepressants in their pockets."

That said, my attitude is becoming like what seems to be yours "If it is 'hopeless', let's at LEAST go down trying. Worse case, we'll make things a tiny bit better than if we didn't."

And, I suspect, the more we live in the solution, and not the problem, the less hopeless it will seem.

[dipsydoodle]

2. The issue isn't the association of a single event

Its attributing EVERY single weather condition to climate change that cause the subject of climate change to have credibility problems.

As an illustration - yesterday's awful event in OK caused mention of the subject here and yet up until the yesterday the second worst event there was 1905 : http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/20/185613204/a-brief-history-of-oklahoma-tornadoes

[PADemD]

4. The 90 mph winds of hurricane (Sandy) that made my porch roof and walls collapse in PA.

[greenman3610]

5. statement from respected scientist

http://climatecrocks.com/2013/05/21/tornado-drought-officially-over/

Of course tornadoes are very much a weather phenomenon. They come from certain thunderstorms, usually super-cell thunderstorms that are in a wind shear environment that promotes rotation. The main climate change connection is via the basic instability
of the low level air that creates the convection and thunderstorms in the first place.
Warmer and moister conditions are the key for unstable air.

The climate change effect is probably only a 5 to 10% effect in terms of the instability and subsequent rainfall, but it translates into up to a 32% effect in terms of damage.
(It is highly nonlinear).
So there is a chain of events and climate change mainly affects the first link: the basic buoyancy of the air is increased. Whether that translates into a super-cell storm and one with a tornado is largely chance weather.

[Junkdrawer]

6. So it's not black and white - this event, not that event....

It's ALL events become worse. AND there are more of them.

Great point.