Climate Change Blamed for Municipal Problems
The City of Chicago is suing Big Oil for climate change:
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Chicago is suing five of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, accusing them of lying about their products and the dangers of climate change that contributes to flooding, extreme heat and other destructive forces that hurt the city and its residents.
Chicago Mayor Johnson issued a statement:
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Mr. Johnson blames Big Oil for extreme weather, flooding, and bad air quality.
However, the weather in Chicago has been exceptionally nice for the last several years. How do I know? I live near the city and spend much of every day outdoors!
Look at the “Daily weather records” for Chicago, presented by Weather.gov. It shows weather records by year for every day of any given month. The records include temperature highs and highest precipitation. For July, usually the hottest month, I highlighted any weather records achieved since the year 2010, for highest temperature and precipitation:
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You can see three record hot days in 2012 (I remember that) and two record precipitation days in 2010 and 2011. Does it look like Chicago is suffering from climate excesses? Not to me!
The records for August show the same pattern. Essentially no recorded weather extremes since 2010:
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Paradoxically, Mayor Johnson blames Big Oil for the record heat wave… of 1995!
It specifically cites the more than 700 deaths in the city during an oppressive four-day heatwave in the summer of 1995.
I am not a lawyer, but a 29-year-ago heatwave should be well past the statute of limitations for most civil actions, so I am not sure why Mayor Johnson is bringing it up other than not having any more recent “climate deaths” to back his lawsuit up.
Here are the Chicago environmental activists demanding such lawsuits:
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Is the “basement flooding” happening due to climate change? Not according to this well-thought-out article from our local radio station:
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Since no record rainfalls are happening, perhaps flooding should be blamed on the mayor of Chicago, whose job is to control flooding. Understandably, Mr. Johnson would rather blame Big Oil than himself.
Chicago is a densely populated city with many problems. It is often flooded, many streets are strewn with trash, the police do not do their job effectively, the city is near-insolvent, and so on.
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After declaring itself a sanctuary city, the city is complaining about the influx of immigrants.
The city is not without problems - but climate change is not one of them.
What do you think?
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