By Anthony Watts and H. Sterling Burnett
In a recent article published in The New Scientist (NS), “The everyday ways climate change is already making our lives worse,” the author argues that “climate change is already making our lives worse,” citing a litany of supposed impacts from extreme weather — from increased food prices to disrupted sleep and longer commute times. This narrative is misleading, at best, and outright false in many instances. It ignores the substantial evidence that humanity is currently thriving in a period of unparalleled prosperity, health, and technological advancement. Contrary to the article’s alarmist tone, data suggests that despite localized weather disruptions, global crop yields are at record highs, overall mortality rates from climate-related events have decreased, and adaptive technologies have vastly mitigated potential risks.
James Dinneen, the author of the NS piece opens by saying:
When you think of threats from climate change, you probably envision flooding and wind from supercharged hurricanes, or unprecedented heatwaves. A survey of people in the US from late 2024 found that the majority of people see extreme weather as the greatest climate-related danger. But there are a slew of more persistent ways climate change is disrupting our day-to-day experiences.
. . .
While these more mundane impacts of climate change – such as worse allergies or longer commute times – might seem to pale in comparison to climate disasters, they can add up to represent a big shift …
The NS article pushes a narrative of a world in decline, yet the data tells a different story. Today, humanity enjoys better health, higher life expectancy, and improved living conditions than at any other point in recorded history. Truly, warmer temperatures and improved technologies have ushered in a golden age for humanity.
We will take on the false NS claims point by point.
Extreme Weather
Dinneen asserts that severe weather is getting worse due to climate change. This claim is debunked by real-world data. Dozens of posts at Climate Realism present comprehensive data analyses demonstrating that there has been no significant increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, or floods over the past several decades. The peer reviewed research and data sets presented in Climate at a Glance similarly show no upward trend in extreme weather.
As importantly, the misleading claims about extreme weather events ignore the broader context which shows that overall, weather-related disasters have become less deadly and less destructive as global resilience and adaptive capacity have improved.
Higher Food Prices
Dinneen completely ignores the evidence and misleads when he writes that, “[c]limate change is driving up the cost of food – and everything else.” More than 200 articles as Climate Realism, here, here, and here, for example, thoroughly demonstrate global agricultural production has risen fairly steadily during the recent period of modest warming ——the growth and crop production and yields have been nearly universal across crop types, countries, and continents. Data from U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization show that despite yearly ups and downs in different regions on different farms, global food supplies remain robust due to the increase in carbon dioxide producing better growing conditions, technological advances, precision agriculture, and improved irrigation techniques.
Attributing price increases to climate change is intellectually dishonest. Numerous factors, including annual regional weather conditions, fuel costs, geopolitical instability, and economic policies, are behind any price inflation not a slight long-term average global temperature increase.
Rising Cooling Costs
The article claims that it costs more to run one’s air conditioner to keep cool due to rising temperatures. Yet, it fails to account for dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. The fact is that while electric power prices have risen, the cost per degree of cooling has fallen as programable smart meters allow better minute by minute temperature control and as air conditioners have become more efficient.
To the extent that the price to run one’s air conditioner has increased it is wholly due to government action and corporate profiteering, replacing the most effective, least expensive refrigerants from the market with more expensive, specialized refrigerants that can’t work in older models, and replacing inexpensive, reliable power sources, like coal, gas, and nuclear, with less reliable, more expensive renewable energy sources.
Disrupted Sleep?
The NS warns that sleep is being disrupted due to warmer nights. Perhaps, perhaps not? But the more salient point is that cold-related deaths vastly outnumber heat-related fatalities, and as the temperature has modestly warmed the number of people dying as a result of non-optimum temperatures has fallen dramatically.
A comprehensive study published in The Lancet found that over 90% of temperature-related deaths worldwide are due to cold exposure, not heat. (See the chart, below)
As global temperatures have gradually risen, the overall mortality rate from temperature extremes has declined, largely because fewer people are dying from cold weather.
Thus, framing climate change as solely negatively impacting human health pushes an unproven lesser concern at the expense of a huge benefit.
Travel Disruptions
Dinneen also blames longer commute times due to coastal flooding on climate change. However, flooding hasn’t increased and seas are rising a fairly slow rate compared to much of human history.
The real cause of growing commute times poor infrastructure development, management, and planning in the face of increasing population.
According to Climate at a Glance, global sea level rise has been relatively modest — approximately 3.3 mm per year. While certain regions may experience higher rates due to land subsidence or localized factors, these variations are not significant enough to justify the apocalyptic tone adopted by New Scientist.
Additionally, a comprehensive analysis by NOAA reveals that the primary drivers of flooding in coastal cities are poor drainage systems, inadequate levee maintenance, and unplanned urban expansion into flood-prone areas — factors that are wholly unrelated to climate change.
Worsening Allergies
The NS article suggests that climate change is worsening allergies due to higher pollen concentrations. This is partly true, but the increase in pollen production is also due to urban landscaping choices, invasive plant species, and intensified agricultural practices.
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology notes that the proliferation of non-native, high-pollen plants in urban areas has driven the rise in allergy cases, not global warming. Moreover, urban heat islands — areas with higher temperatures due to asphalt, concrete, and reduced vegetation — exacerbate pollen counts. These localized effects are not representative of broader climate trends.
Also, as explored at Climate Realism, the extended allergy season is also in large part due to the extended spring growing season that has been a boon for pollinators and farm production alike. Focusing on a drawback of a greener world, worsening allergies, while ignoring its broad benefits of more trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, and food crops, betrays a misplaced emphasis on the trees while ignoring the benefits of the forest, representing poor journalism.
Air Pollution
Dinneen also claims in his NS piece that air pollution is getting worse due to rising temperatures. However, air quality in developed countries has improved dramatically over the during the recent period of modest warming. According to the EPA’s Air Quality Trends, levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone have declined by more than 70 percent since the 1980s in the United States. Concentrations of the air pollutants carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide have all also declined dramatically.
When and where pollution spikes arise, it is overwhelmingly driven by wildfires — a natural phenomenon that has occurred for millennia and is more closely linked to poor forest management than to climate change. In fact, a study by the U.S. Forest Service found that over 85 percent of wildfires in the U.S. are caused by human activity, not climate-driven weather patterns.
Despite the pervasive narrative of climate doom, a moderately warmer climate over the past century has brought tangible benefits to humanity. For example, longer growing seasons have led to increased agricultural yields, particularly in higher latitude regions that were previously too cold for robust crop production. Climate at a Glance documents that global crop yields have reached record highs, benefiting from the mild rise in temperatures and the fertilizing effect of higher CO₂ levels.
The NS article is yet another example of cherry-picked data and misleading narratives masquerading as climate journalism. Rather than presenting a balanced perspective that acknowledges both potential risks and documented benefits of a moderately warming climate, the article chooses to focus solely on speculative negatives while ignoring the broader context, in the process missing the opportunity to genuinely inform its readers about the true state of the climate and, as it changes, its impacts both good and bad.
Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is one of the world’s leading free-market think tanks. It is a national nonprofit research and education organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.
Originally posted at ClimateREALISM
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