Climate Deniers Twist Study in Attempt to Question Science

A study released last week suggesting that the world may have more time to keep warming under 1.5 degrees C than previously thought is being twisted by deniers to question scientific proceedings and accuracy.

Politico reported Monday morning that powerful deniers are focusing on misinterpretations of the study to support efforts to roll back climate policy and question climate science at large (as our own Denier Roundup predicted last week).

New Study: Global Warming Limit Can Still Be Achieved https://t.co/hSpksadJIq @ClimateTreaty @climatecouncil

— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) September 20, 2017

The study represents “exactly the type of debate discussion scientists need to be having,” Heartland Institute President Tim Huelskamp told Politico. “This article proved that there can be a lot of debate about the fundamental issues.”

The study’s authors pushed back against denier misuse of their findings. In an op-ed in the Guardian last week, they wrote that “after reasonably accurate initial reporting, suddenly our paper was about a downgrading of the threat of climate change, when it was actually nothing of the kind.

“Debating the current level of human-induced warming and how it relates to the 1.5° C goal feels a bit like discussing how best to steer a spacecraft into orbit around Saturn while Delingpole [James, Breitbart] and Stringer [Graham, a Labour MP] are urging their readers to question whether the Earth goes round the Sun,” they added.

For a deeper dive:

Politico, Ars Technica. Commentary: The Guardian, Myles Allen and Richard Millar op-ed

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