Climate change deniers cast doubt with false data

In his letter of May 30, Jeremy Conlin demonstrates some of the deceptive tactics climate change deniers utilize to try to cast doubt on the scientific consensus regarding global warming.

He references fringe websites (The American Storm and Climate Craze) from which he cherry-picks anomalous, outlying data points that are rare exceptions to the predominant trends associated with the steadily warming Earth.

He gives outdated information, e.g., “...the Svalbard Sea ice area...is above the 1919-2020 average.” In fact, Svalbard’s winter sea ice loss is now greater than anywhere else in the Arctic. (See, “Missing Sea Ice in Svalbard.”)

He tells half-truths. He states the sea level is falling in Stockholm. What he doesn’t tell us is that the sea level is falling relative to the land because the land is rising faster than the sea level. (See “Sea level rise now menaces even a Viking bastion of uplifted land.”) In another example, he says the number of wildfires in Canada is trending downward. What he doesn’t tell us is that the area burned by Canadian wildfires has more than doubled since the 1970s. (See, “How wildfires are changing in Canada.”)

He cites misinformation. For example, he claims climate models are inaccurate. (See. “Climate models reliably project future conditions.”)

Of course, the purpose of this subterfuge is to give the false impression that the evidence does not support the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and is largely human-caused. When climate change deniers peddle their alternative facts, caveat emptor.

JACK DeBAUN

Dover