Why climate scientists are taking fact-checking into their own hands
Scientists are challenging a series of news reports last week that suggest record-high temperatures are the result of the weather phenomenon El Ni帽o, not climate change.
Researchers, science writers, and bloggers have slammed the media report since it first appeared in the British Tabloid The Daily Mail on Sunday. They have said the report 鈥� which was then summarized and widely circulated by the conservative news and opinion website Breitbart on Wednesday 鈥� cherry-picked data and drew incorrect conclusions.
The scientific community鈥檚 efforts to debunk the report are part of a developing trend, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in January. Climate change was already a highly politicized subject before Mr. Trump鈥檚 victory on Nov. 8, with climate scientists having a tense relationship with some members of Congress skeptical of humanity鈥檚 impact on global weather patterns. But Trump鈥檚 suggestions that climate change is a 鈥渉oax鈥� and his promises to scale back on research and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has many in the scientific community facing off against these and related assertions. 聽
Karen James, an independent researcher in Maine, told The Boston Globe she challenged on Facebook The Daily Mail report because she is concerned Trump鈥檚 win marks that it is no longer valuable to examine the truth and make evidence-based decisions.
鈥淪cience doesn鈥檛 just produce facts and technologies and things that are useful. It鈥檚 also a way of thinking that values the truth,鈥� said Dr. James, a biologist at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor.
Federal and international agencies including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the World Meteorological Organization have said 2016 will likely be the hottest year on record, continuing a two-year trend.
But the report written by The Daily Mail鈥檚 David Rose says El Ni帽o, not climate change, for this past year鈥檚 record-high temperatures. Mr. Rose also cites a recent decline in global average temperatures on land since the El Ni帽o event ended this year, ushering in a cooler La Ni帽a cycle.
Breitbart News鈥檚 James Delingpole then summarized the report in an article titled 鈥�.鈥� The Twitter account of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology shared the Breitbart article, prompting a deluge of angry responses from Democratic politicians and climate scientists, including Peter Gleick, co-founder and chief scientist of the independent research institute, The Pacific Institute. 聽
Multiple studies showclimate change is likely due to human activities including greenhouse-gas emissions, according to NASA. 聽
Climate scientists across the blogosphere criticized The Daily Mail and Breitbart reports for cherrypicking data to draw targeted conclusions. Phil Plait, author of Slate鈥檚 鈥淏ad Astronomy鈥� blog, was one of many writers to point out Rose . Temperature, they write, fluctuates much more on land than in the oceans because land stores relatively little heat.
Deke Arndt, the chief of the climate monitoring branch at NOAA鈥檚 National Centers for Environmental Information, told The New York Times El Ni帽o, from climate change.
鈥淵ou can have both climate change and a goose from El Ni帽o,鈥� he said.
Other climate scientists pointed out the 2016 El Ni帽o event was the hottest on record, in part, because global average temperatures have already increased over the time.
On the 鈥淥pen Mind鈥� blog, the pseudonymous Tamino also criticized Rose for citing temperature fluctuations only since 1998, and . 聽
The cacophony of voices that attempted to debunk The Daily Mail and Breitbart reports also highlighted climate scientists complicated relationship with some members of The House Committee on Science, which retweeted the Breitbart article. Some referenced Republican chair Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas and his criticism of the Obama administration. Mr. Smith has accused the Obama administration several times of having a 鈥�.鈥� 聽
鈥淭he United States鈥� contribution to the Paris climate agreement, which includes the Clean Power Plan, could cost up to $176 billion annually, and ,鈥� he said in a statement posted on the Committee鈥檚 website.
But other members have said the current environment of the committee is hostile to climate scientists. Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts, told The Boston Globe scientists and witnesses are belittled, and they are sometimes handpicked to further a specific agenda.
Some in the scientific community are trying to improve this relationship between them and a Republican Congress and White House before Mr. Trump takes office. An open letter signed by 87 scientists and 22 Nobel winners hopes to convince Trump and the Republican Congress of the importance of accepting scientific evidence for climate change, as the 海角大神 Science Monitor鈥檚 Weston Williams reported.
"Scientific knowledge has played in making the United States a powerful and prosperous聽nation and improving the health and well-being of Americans and people around the world," reads the letter. "From disease聽outbreaks to climate change to national security to technology innovation, people benefit when our聽nation鈥檚 policies are informed by science unfettered by inappropriate political or corporate influence."
The letter appeared to take aim at Trump and his transition team鈥檚 skepticism of climate change. Trump has called climate change 鈥渁 hoax鈥� orchestrated by the Chinese and pledged to revive the American coal industry, roll back carbon emission regulations, and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. He also recently named Myron Ebell, who of his climate views, to head his Environmental Protection Agency transition team.
While Trump appeared to soften this stance in an interview with The New York Times in November (he said there is 鈥溾�� between humans and climate change), his space policy adviser wants to refocus NASA鈥檚 attention away from Earth and towards space.
鈥� is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission,鈥� Trump adviser Bob Walker recently told The Guardian.
That remark led to calls among the scientific community that agencies including NOAA couldn鈥檛 shoulder the budgetary or satellite requirements for these research activities.
But Trump and a Republican Congress wouldn鈥檛 be the first in Washington and abroad to have a tense relationship with climate scientists. Both the Harper government in Canada and the Abbott administration in Australia challenged and defunded climate research. Even former President George W. Bush refocused NASA鈥檚 role in Earth sciences, as the Monitor鈥檚 Joseph Dussault reported.
鈥淏ut at that time, climate change hadn鈥檛 yet been politicized to the degree it is now. And space-based Earth monitoring was a nonpartisan cornerstone in the national strategy,鈥� writes Dussault.
