Another hysterical, alarming report from a bunch of people with a (nonscientific) agenda ["Report: Warming brings major changes to forests," Feb. 7]. Actual data, not misrepresentations or outright lying about the facts, show the claims of drought increases to be completely wrong. See http://www.nipccreport.org.
I quote from the report on the paper:
According to the nine researchers, there were "no obvious increases in drought duration and intensity during 1895-2007." In fact, they say they actually found "a slight (not significant) decreasing trend in drought intensity." And they emphatically state that "although reports from IPCC (2007) and the U.S. Climate Report (Karl et al., 2009) indicated that it is likely that drought intensity, frequency, and duration will increase in the future for the SUS, we did not find this trend in the historical data."
And in like manner they write that although "the IPCC (2007) and U.S. Climate Report predicted a rapid increase in air temperature, which would result in a higher evapotranspiration thereby reducing available water," they also say they "found no obvious increase in air temperature for the entire SUS during 1895-2007."
The drivel about increasing wildfires can also be shown to be incorrect.
Arvid Pasto, Sparks