A little snippet in the New York Times.

It may not be possible to say that this heat wave or the drought that
is afflicting Europe has been caused by global warming, especially when
some of the records that fell recently were set many years ago.

Well, actually, about the drought in Europe (and as attentive readers will know, I’m living right in the middle of it in Portugal. We’re dreading the autumn and the forest fire season), we do know. It isn’t.

As noted in the Guardian on June 22nd.

The droughts in Europe
may be shocking and they are predicted to carry on into next year. But,
according to climate experts, they are the result of natural climate
cycles and not global warming.
…..
Professor Saunders says
that the current situation is a result of natural climate variability.
Drought trends going back more than 100 years show this sort of natural
cycle repeating itself time and again. He also rules out global warming
as a contributing factor since it is expected to cause wetter winters.

I had actually thought that news travelled faster than that these days, it taking, well at least hopefully taking, less than four days to cross the Atlantic.

I realise that it may strike some as droll to use the Guardian to refute the NY Times but I think (guess?) that it is a paper that the editorial board does at least deign to read. Or perhaps not?

After all, throwing about ill researched allegations to support one’s prejudices is what blogs do, isn’t it? How dare they trample on our turf!  Those layers of editors and fact checkers are employed to do something aren’t they?