SUMMARY:
The Kyushu region of Japan
has been getting lots of rain.
There has been flooding
and 62 reported deaths
because local officials
failed to properly heed
warnings to evacuate.
The New York Times (NYT)
blamed it on “demographic
change and global warming”.
The NYT provided no data,
nor did it cite any study,
to prove their claim.
The New York Times
even failed to check
actual Japanese
rainfall data,
and repeated an old,
and wrong, global warming
/ climate change narrative.
Data-free assertions
are typical of the
pro-leftist biased media,
and The New York Times
is no exception.
DETAILS:
“In recent years, climate change
has spurred more torrential rains
in Japan, causing deadly flooding
and mudslides in a nation
with many rivers and mountains,”
reports Motoko Rich
of the New York Times.
Japan's Meteorological
Association (JMA) data
tell a different story
Using data from the
Japan Meteorological Agency
(JMA), Japanese blogger Kirye
plotted the annual precipitation
anomaly for Japan since 1898.
The charts show Japan’s
precipitation has trended
downward since 1898,
and has not risen.
The most recent decade
had precipitation levels
similar to the 1950s.
And similar to the
very early part
of the 20th century.
Nothing unusual
is happening with
Japanese rainfall.
Consider the JMA
annual precipitation data
for Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto
Prefecture itself since 1948:
The rainfall in the
region, over the
past decade,
has been similar
to the 1950s.
Extremes are no more
intense or frequent today
than they were in the past.
No July precipitation
trend changes
Consider southern
Japan region’s rainfall
for July, going back to 1948.
No major trend changes.
Very wet July months
were just as frequent,
and more intense,
in the 1950s.
Decreasing hot days
-- the region’s number
of days recording
a temperature of
30°C or higher.
Later in the article,
Motoko Rich eventually
revealed the real cause
of the recent flooding deaths
in Kyushu:
“The Japanese
government issues
standardized
evacuation protocols,
but they do not take into account
the unique characteristics or terrain
in different parts of the country,
said Professor Tsukahara
of Kyushu University.”
The United Nation's IPCC
claims that trends
in precipitation
SHOULD be visible
if human-caused
climate change
caused floods.
They found no trends
on any time-scale
of any statistically
relevant length
anywhere in the world.
So there are NO trends.
Which means that floods
are NOT among the claimed
effects of increased
man made carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere.
The IPCC points to
the beginning date
of human effects as 1950,
where the trend
would be visible,
if there was a trend.
When looking at climate,
you eventually realize
it is a chaotic system,
built of many interlinked
chaotic sub-systems,
with lots of feedback
paths.
Statistical averaging
of a few factors
within such a chaotic
system reveals what ?
Not much !
That can NOT tell you
what the trend of the
chaotic system
(on a local or global scale)
will be in the future.
That can
never indicate
the changes
that might happen
in local areas.
Japan is prone to heavy rain,
deluges, and flooding,
but can also get periods
of drought.
On average, (over a long enough
timescale) everything seems
to fluctuate around a normal figure.
Yet another mystery
of real climate science.