Scientist slams ‘climate change grifters’ over Himalayan disaster claims

Science and technology expert Dr Matthew M. Wielicki has criticised attempts to immediately attribute catastrophic Himalayan flooding to ‘climate change’, arguing that powerful glacial outburst floods have occurred naturally in the region long before modern atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

In a strongly worded post on X, Wielicki drew on his own field experience in Tibet, where he said he had spent weeks observing the vast river systems cutting through the geologically active Himalayan landscape.

“I’ve spent many weeks doing fieldwork in Tibet, sitting above these enormous, deeply incised Himalayan river systems and seeing firsthand just how geologically active this landscape is,” Wielicki wrote.

He then took aim at commentators who invoke ‘climate change’ in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters.

“So spare me the climate-change grift every time a natural disaster strikes,” he said.

Wielicki specifically highlighted glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOFs — sudden releases of large quantities of water from lakes dammed by glaciers, ice or glacial debris.

He pointed to the 1981 Zhangzangbo glacial lake outburst flood as evidence that extreme flooding of this type is not unprecedented in the Himalayas.

“Catastrophic glacial outburst floods are not new. The 1981 Zhangzangbo GLOF released ~20 million m³ of water and debris into Nepal, with estimated peak discharge approaching 16,000 m³/s,” he wrote.

“The Himalayas experienced enormous GLOFs long before today’s atmospheric CO₂ concentrations.”

Wielicki argued that the historical occurrence of such events demonstrated that natural processes remain capable of producing catastrophic flooding independently of alleged contemporary increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

“If it happened naturally in the past, we should expect it to happen naturally again in the future — regardless of atmospheric CO₂,” he said.

“Turning a horrific loss of life into an immediate climate-change narrative without demonstrating that CO₂ caused this particular event isn’t attribution. It’s opportunism,” he wrote.

Wielicki concluded with an even sharper condemnation of those he believes use natural disasters to advance predetermined climate narratives.

“And the people exploiting tragedy to do it are grifters.”

We will never be ready for this. pic.twitter.com/FUrEvxLluR

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) August 28, 2026