Obama speaks: the evidence is overwhelmed

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
" President Obama suggested in his second inaugural speech that God expects us to “preserve our planet” by taking steps to combat “the threat of climate change”. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science,” he said, “but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling droughts and more powerful storms.”
He seemed clearly to be blaming man-made climate change for the fact that his country last year endured its worst drought for 75 years; for Storm Sandy, which flooded New York; and for a record acreage of forest lost to fires. But one wonders how closely Mr Obama consulted “the overwhelming judgment of science” on these matters.
The Palmer Drought Severity Index shows no rising trend of drought in the US since the 1880s (the 1930s Dust Bowl disaster long preceding the scare over global warming). Figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration similarly show no rising trend in US hurricane activity (more intense in the 1950s than in recent years). As for forest fires, there are many experts (as in Australia and Spain) who argue that much of the increase in fire damage is due to pressure from “green” environmentalists to forbid the clearing of underbrush, which encourages fires to spread quicker and further than proper woodland management would allow.
I am not sure that the President’s wish to see yet more subsidies poured into windmills and solar panels will do as much to change the Earth’s climate as he fondly believes."