The facts on climate change contrarians

Jeremy Conlin (Daily Bee, Jan. 23, 2022) references books from two of his favorite climate change contrarians, Joe Bastardi and Roy Spencer. To understand why they are untrustworthy sources of climate information, search for “Climate Misinformation by Source: Joe Bastardi” and “Climate Misinformation by Source: Roy Spencer”).

Mr. Conlin cites an article by a Dutch politician that criticizes a 2016 study showing 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming is predominantly human caused. Since that study was conducted, three others (one in 2019 and two in 2021) have been published using different methodologies to determine the level of agreement. The findings from these recent studies show that 98.7% to 99.9% of the most-experienced, practicing climate scientists agree anthropogenic warming is a reality. (Search for “Surveys of scientists' views on climate change – Wikipedia”)

As Mr. Conlin correctly noted, during 2021 the “polar darkness period” in Antarctica was the coldest on record. While that is noteworthy, over the past few decades, the most northerly parts of the continent have warmed five times faster than the global average. Climate science involves decades-long trends, not sporadic weather events like the recent Antarctic cold spell. During the Antarctic warm period (our fall, winter, and spring), the mean trend is increased warming. Land ice sheets in Antarctica have been losing mass since 2002. During February of 2020, the Esperanza Research Station's temperature reached 64.9 degrees F, breaking the previous Antarctic high temperature record. (Search for “Misleading posts claim record Antarctica cold disproves global warming.”)

JACK DeBAUN

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