The ultimate test of anti-science sentiment, of course, is to see what climate deniers do when confronted with science that actually appears to confirm their views. Which is why this
study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, was brilliantly timed. The researchers found that warming in the Pacific Northwest over the past century can primarily be explained by natural wind patterns, not human activity – the perfect bait for those looking for any shred of evidence to hold up as “proof” that climate change isn’t happening.
Fox News, in its
coverage of the U.N. climate summit, provided the perfect example of this:
While the Climate Summit has undoubtedly raised the profile of the U.N.’s green agenda,
skeptics continue to
question the effort to cut carbon emissions, particularly its impact on global economic growth.
“If you look at the big picture of fossil fuels, at the positives and negatives, the only conclusion to draw is that it’s imperative to use more of them, because they are so beneficial to human life,” Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, and author of the forthcoming book
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, told FoxNews.com.
On Monday a study
reported that rising temperatures in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America over the past century followed natural changes in the wind, as opposed to increases in greenhouse gas emissions.
If you’re keeping track at home, the train of thought here is that one person arguing we need to use more fossil fuels, plus one study about climate patterns in one region of the United States, constitutes the body of skepticism that somehow undermines the entire premise of the U.N. summit.
Were the researchers surprised by their findings? Climatologist James Johnstone, one of the study’s authors,
calls the result “mind-blowing.” But it’s important to remember, as the
L.A. Times points out, that these findings have to be considered very, very carefully: “The study focused only on trends at the regional level and did not offer conclusions about the influence of naturally occurring winds on warming throughout the world. If anything, the results reinforce what scientists have known for years: that global climate projections fall short in predicting how temperatures are actually changing at the regional scale.”
Unfortunately, that nuance was lost on
Rush Limbaugh, who, citing the L.A. Times, insisted that the study “totally debunks a major spoke of the wheel of global warming.”
None of this denialism is new, but man, does it present an ugly contrast to the testimonies of world leaders at the U.N. — like, for example, Bosnian President Bakir Izetbegović, who spoke of floods that cost almost
15 percent of his country’s GDP, or to Anote Tong, president of Kiribati, who
proclaimed, ”I’ve been shouting about climate change for so long, I have lost my voice.”
LINDSAY ABRAMS
