Paper short abstract:

In this paper we explore the meanings and uses of severe weather events in the context of climate change policy. Why is extreme weather playing a prominent role in mobilizing policy work and public opinion about climate change?

Paper long abstract:

With each new weather disaster, the media ask the question, "Was this disaster caused by anthropogenic climate change?" Scientists, eager to motivate the public and governments to act on climate change, often link these individual weather events with climate change, often without substantial evidence to support the linkage or even without knowing whether it is an effective strategy. Furthermore, linking high-impact weather events with climate change perpetuates the idea that reducing greenhouse gases would be enough to reduce increasingly vulnerable world populations to the effects of adverse weather. Is it ethical for scientists to argue this point, particularly when stopping all greenhouse gas emissions overnight would not prevent weather disasters from occurring? Is it ethical as a society to prepare for a future 50-100 years in the future when thousands die in weather disasters each year worldwide?

In this paper we argue that this strategy confuses the public and policy makers as to the socioeconomic susceptibility to extreme weather. We argue that there is no quick, single-cause solution for the problem of human vulnerability to socioenvironmental change, nor is there a reasonable prospect of attenuating the impact of extreme weather events through a policy that ignores the 'social change' at the expense of climate change.