Apparently everyone knows that global warming only makes climate more extreme. A hot, dry summer has caused another flood of such claims. And one of the players that benefit the most from this story is the media: the idea of "extreme" climate simply makes for more exciting news. Consider Paul Krugman writing breathlessly in The New York Times about the "rising incidence of extreme events." He claims that global warming caused the current drought in America's Midwest, and that supposedly record-high corn prices could cause a global food crisis .  But the United Nations's latest assessment tells us precisely the opposite--there has an overall slight tendency toward less dryness in North America. Moreover, there is no way that Krugman could have identified this drought as being caused by global warming without a time machine since climate models estimate that such detection will be possible by 2048, at the earliest. And, fortunately, this year's drought appears unlikely to cause a food crisis, as global rice and wheat supplies are plentiful. Moreover, Krugman overlooks inflation :Prices have increased six-fold since 1969.So, the inflation-adjusted price of corn was higher throughout most of the 1970s. Finally, Krugman forgets that concerns about global warming are the main reason that corn prices have skyrocketed since 2005.Nowadays 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol ,which raises the price of corn -at the expense of many of the world's poorest people. Bill Mickbben similarly worries in The Guardian About the Midwest drought and corn prices.He confidently tells us that fierce wildfires from New Mexico and Colorado to Siberia are "exactly" what the early stages of global warming look like. In fact, the latest study on global wildfire suggests that fire incidence has declined over the past 70 years and is now close to its preindustrial level. When well--meaning campaigners want us to pay attention to global warming, they often end up making overstatements. And exaggerated  claims merely fuel public distrust and unconcern. That is unfortunate, because global warming is a real problem, and we do need to address it. What does the author think of the exaggerated claims in the media about global warming?
They lead to public distrust about science. They create confusion about climate change, They are strategies to raise public awareness. They do a disservice to addressing the problem.