Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate, seized on the deadly tornadoes last week to bolster his claim that dramatic action is needed to save mankind from a global climate catastrophe.

But many scientists point out that the number of violent tornadoes actually has decreased in recent decades, the Washington Times reports.

Purdue University professor Ernest Agee, who has studied tornadoes for 50 years, said his research and that of others shows strong and violent tornadoes "have actually leveled off."

"They're definitely not increasing with time over the last few decades. In fact, there's a slight tendency, just a very slight tendency, of the decline in the number of violent and strong tornadoes," he said.

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The outbreak March 3 in Lee County, Alabama, left 23 dead after an EF4 tornado swept through the area.

After the Alabama tornado, Sanders weighed in on Facebook.

"The science is clear, climate change is making extreme weather events, including tornadoes, worse. We must prepare for the impacts of climate change that we know are coming," he wrote.

But last year was the first since record-keeping began in 1950 without an EF4 or EF5 tornado, the most powerful on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, according to the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.

Further, the 10 deaths reported last year from U.S. tornadoes was the fewest since unofficial counts began in 1875.

The previous low was 12 deaths in 1910.

"Last year was, for a lack of a better term, a tornado drought over the United States," Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University, told the Times.

Environmental guru: Ocasio-Cortez a 'climate fraud'

Last month, as WND reported, a guru of the environmental movement called the "Green New Deal" proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "climate fakery."

The radical plan has become a litmus test for 2020 presidential candidates.

"I am calling bulls--t not just on AOC but on her progressive enablers in the news media who are giving her a pass on the most crucial test of moral and political leadership of our time when it comes to climate change: a person's stance on nuclear power," said Michael Shellenberger, the founder and president of the non-profit Environmental Progress.

He's a Time Magazine "Hero of the Environment" and a "high priest" of the atomic humanist movement.

Shellenberger labeled Ocasio-Cortez a "climate fraud," and he is "outraged by the fawning uncritical mainstream media coverage the 'Green New Deal.'"

He wrote on Twitter that if you "want to be a self-respecting progressive or journalist who is fairly considering or covering the climate issue, please stop giving Ocasio-Cortex and other supposedly climate-concerned greens a pass."

"THEY ARE INCREASING EMISSIONS," he wrote.