How a major DOE report hides the whole truth on climate change

Some of the discrepancies are semantic. Climate scientists are reluctant to declare a trend, for instance, unless they have decades of data to back it up. 

In the case of hurricanes, the best data extends only to around 1980, when satellites began comprehensively tracking storms as they crossed oceans. Curry, one of the DOE report authors, says that timeline is “not good enough to discern a meaningful trend.” 

But a large majority of scientists disagree, arguing that the data shows rising dangers. 

The percentage of intense hurricanes has likely grown compared to the overall share of storms, said Jim Kossin, a prominent hurricane researcher and a retired NOAA atmospheric scientist who served as a lead author for the IPCC. 

He said the DOE report “is clearly designed to mislead the audience into believing that there are no trends.” 

There’s another problem: Scientists have not predicted that climate change would lead to more hurricanes, as DOE suggests. Instead, they have found that hurricanes are intensifying and dropping more rain.

The lack of discussion in the DOE report about water — not wind speed — being the biggest danger from hurricanes is “a dead giveaway” that the report authors had downplayed the climate risks, said Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.