Alarmist climate activists at MIT have published a paper claiming global warming will soon make it dangerous for Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The scientist-activists make the claim even though millions of Muslims currently visit Mecca each year despite average daily high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.
Global temperatures are at most rising at a pace of only approximately 2 degrees Fahrenheit per century. Moreover, global warming theory holds that the greatest amount of human-caused warming should occur during winter, at night, and closer to the poles. So, assuming a 0.3 degree increase in average high temperatures during the next 20 years at Mecca – from 100.6 degrees to 100.9 degrees – would this really make it much more dangerous for people to visit there?
The common-sense answer to the above question is clearly no. It is extremely unlikely that the present “safe” current average high temperature of 100.6 degrees will suddenly become dangerous and alarming at 100.9 degrees. But that isn’t really the point, as far as alarmist activists are concerned. The greater concern is there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world who might be frightened into supporting climate activism if they are misled into believing global warming threatens their ability to visit Mecca.
So far, the media – as expected – is playing right along with such silly asserted fears. The UK Guardian, the UK Independent, Science Daily, and Grist have all published articles trumpeting the Mecca fear. The study has also been featured at the top of Google News searches for “climate change.” Fortunately, CFACT is also paying attention and reporting the real truth.