WASHINGTON — Ron Klain, Vice President Biden’s former chief of staff, went to bat for the Obama administration Thursday afternoon as he swatted away suggestions from Rick Perry and Mitt Romney that global warming isn’t caused by people.
“They’re playing to their base,” Klain said on MSNBC. “It’s primary politics.”
In defense of global warming being a man-made problem, Klain cited “hurricanes” and “a record year for tornadoes,” also claiming that Republicans are citing information from “scientists and researchers sponsored by the oil industry.”Lets fact check Klain's claim global warming is affecting hurricane activity. The chart below is from NOAA. The green hatched part of the bars indicate the number of hurricanes by year. The red part of the bars indicate category 3 or higher hurricanes. The yellow indicates named storm systems. As you can clearly see, the recent higher temperatures do not correlate to more or stronger hurricanes. The most occurred in the 1930's. The strongest in the 1950's.
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Here is a chart from NOAA depicting the number of tornadoes by month from 1950 to 2010. Dark red indicates the largest number of tornadoes per month. Dark blue indicates the fewest. The early 1970's and early 1990's were the worst time periods for tornadoes.
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Who is guilty of following bad science now?
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