Kite & Key Media

Many people take the connection between climate change and extreme weather events — wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. — for granted. But the actual scientific data … tells a more complicated story.

Extreme weather events are everywhere and their connection to climate change is obvious.

At least … according to the media.

Many climate science researchers, however, make a more subtle claim: Climate change is real and humans are contributing to it — but there hasn’t been any corresponding explosion in extreme weather.

Why the confusion? Partially because the media is at the end of a long game of telephone. There are lots of people responsible for translating complicated scientific research into something laypeople can understand — and many of them don’t necessarily understand the science either.

The result: scenarios like the media rushing to blame the 2023 Canadian wildfires on climate change — despite the fact that the research shows no evidence of Canada being at elevated risk for climate-related fires.

These misperceptions have real-world consequences: Attributing every bout of extreme weather to forces outside of our control can leave us feeling powerless. But there is a wide array of tools we can use to mitigate the consequences of the most dangerous kinds of weather events.

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This video and more on Climate Attribution and Extreme Weather can be found on our ClimateTV page