The path of Hurricane Idalia may look line it's tracking across north Florida and then along the Georgia coast, but the familiar cone projections only show the center of the storm and Idalia actually traveled a little further inland than forecast.  In fact, the storm is huge, several hundred miles across, and the outer edge grazed the southeast edge of the metro Atlanta region.

It's rained on and off all day here, but wind hasn't been a factor and even the rain hasn't been as heavy as the thunderstorms that rolled through here this week.  Just last night, the t-storms knocked limbs off several trees across my neighborhood, although none fell on my property and no power lives were hit.

No credible source has claimed that Idalia was caused by climate change, but climate change and the associated warmer ocean temperatures are responsible for the increase in the frequency of hurricanes and the increased intensity of the hurricanes.  

Just as no single weather event can be blamed on climate change, no single death can be attributed to climate change either. Yet a Republican presidential candidate is going around stating that more deaths have occurred because of bad climate change policy than due to climate change itself, which he further still claims is a "hoax."

No one single death can be attributed to climate change, but the increasing number of excess hurricane-related deaths has been increasing over the years.  A recent study of excess hurricane-related deaths between 1988 and 2019 found that about 70% of the deaths occurred more recently, from 2004 to 2019. Hurricane Katrina in 2004 and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 contributed significantly to the total number of excess deaths.  The ongoing effect of climate change, which has increased the severity of hurricanes, most likely played a role in the upward number of hurricane-related deaths, although increasing coastal populations in the U.S. are another contributing factor. 

Meanwhile, there sadly aren't that many climate-change policies in the U.S. or elsewhere other than a few lofty goals that haven't yet been achieved.  No one is dying from "bad climate-change policy."

But the claim resonates with conservative voters because it sounds like the other spurious charge that the international response to COVID-19 has done more harm than the virus itself.  While there is some room for agreement that there have been unintended consequences to the covid lockdown (missed education, postponement of other medical procedures, etc.), there have been nearly seven million confirmed deaths worldwide from the virus.  

The response to the pandemic was not worse than the pandemic itself, although many conservatives believe otherwise. From there, it's an easy association that any policy response to any problem is worse than the cause itself.  Therefore, claims like more people dying from climate change policy than from climate change itself feels right to them and are accepted with questioning.  It's consistent with their world view; it fits their mental map, their schema. 

But back here in the so-called consensus reality, let's wish the best for the Floridians and Georgians in the path of Idalia and hope for the best possible outcome.