Posted: Dec 04, 2016 3:34 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/03/climate-change-scientists-house-panel-global-temperatures-misleading
Climate scientists condemn article claiming global temperatures are falling
A Republican-led panel promoted a misleading tabloid story alleging earth may not be warming, relying on data that leaves out important points of context
Climate scientists have denounced the House committee on science, space and technology after the Republican-held panel promoted a misleading story expressing skepticism that the earth is dangerously warming.
On Thursday afternoon, the committee tweeted a Breitbart article alleging: “Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists”. The story linked to a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, which claimed that global land temperatures were plummeting, and that humans were not responsible for years of steadily increasing heat.
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[Adam] Sobel called the committee’s use of Breitbart “distressing”. “If the House science committee wants to understand science they should talk to climate scientists. [...] For anyone, least of all the House committee on science, to at this particular moment be promoting fake news aimed at fooling the public into thinking otherwise, can only be interpreted as a deliberate effort to distract and fool the public.”
Promoting the articles, [Michael] Mann said, “is beneath the dignity of anyone holding higher office”.
“This is an astounding example of cherry-picking the data,” said Kerry Emanuel, a professor at MIT. “Global land temperatures fluctuate significantly from one month to the next, and the article in question appears to have cherry-picked a drop on global land temperatures (not including the ocean, which covers 70% of the globe) for a single month.”
Emanuel left politics to the committee, adding: “You may draw your own conclusions as to motives.”