Rather than a serious assessment of the connection between extreme weather and climate change, a recent National Academies of Sciences webinar presented a 253-page report engineered to reinforce the shopworn claim that emissions of carbon dioxide threaten a climate crisis.

The hourlong presentation was as thin on real science as the self-congratulations were effusive. The NAS committee reviewing the issue, we were told, had done “a great job,” improved on a 2016 report, and now needs more funding and theoretical modeling. There was no data-driven test of whether carbon dioxide from human activity alters the frequency or severity of bad weather. The report simply assumes the link and builds on it.