Climate Science Deniers Unable to Comprehend Scientific Study - by Joe Romm

A new study by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that the Arctic sea may go ice free in the summer faster than previous models had projected.  Somehow climate deniers took this to mean something completely different.

Comprehensive global climate models (GCMs) had projected the complete loss of summer ice to occur at 4°C of annual warming in the northern hemisphere.  The Scripps scientists developed a more complete model than the GCMs, and found, “The model becomes seasonally ice-free at 2°C of warming.”

Climate science deniers, such as those at the website “Daily Caller,” are touting this study because they think it says the Arctic will soon reverse its death spiral.  But as the study’s actual authors confirmed to me, “In short, what you write here regarding our study is correct, and the Daily Caller article that you link to is incorrect.”

The Daily Caller writes, “But new research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that predictions of an ice-free Arctic are based on ‘oversimplified’ theories.”  That isn’t what the study says that all, as noted above.  In fact, the very first line of the study says, “Arctic sea ice is undergoing a striking, closely monitored, and highly publicized decline.”
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DailyCaller
Yes, it is true the Daily Caller’s version “doesn’t fit the liberal media’s narrative,” mostly because the “liberal media” tries to get the story right.

That the deniers are wrong is no surprise, but why are they so confused?  Well, the Scripps news release is not written very clearly, especially the headlines.  So if you don’t read the whole release, and if you don’t actually read the study or talk to the authors — and if you are prone to getting things wrong in general — well, you’ll definitely mess up this kind of story about climate science.

The most important part of the release — in fact the only part of the release that is actually both clear and important — is the final paragraph, which quotes the lead author, Dr. Till Wagner:

The interesting conclusion from the study from the scientists’ viewpoint (and Scripps’) was that a more sophisticated model of the Arctic found that, contrary to previous models, the ice loss is not, technically, irreversible.  If you could somehow reverse temperatures on the earth, the ice would come back.  But in practice it is all but impossible to get temperatures back down again.

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