| April 2, 2009 |  |
George Will Distorts Climate Science in Latest Column
Statement by Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON (April 02, 2009) — Columnist George Will has a track record of distorting climate science and he did it again today in his column "Climate Change's Dim Bulbs," according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Reducing carbon emissions supposedly will reverse warming," Will wrote, "which is allegedly occurring even though, according to statistics published by the World Meteorological Organization, there has not been a warmer year on record than 1998."
This is not the first time that Will has made this disingenuous claim and just last month Michael Jarraud, the World Meteorological Organization's secretary general, wrote to the Washington Post to correct the columnist. In a letter to the editor published on March 21, Jarraud wrote: "It is a misinterpretation of the data and of scientific knowledge to point to one year as the warmest on record—as was done in a recent George Will column—and then to extrapolate that cooler subsequent years invalidate the reality of global warming and its effects."
Below is a statement by Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at UCS.
"George Will's non-scientific interpretation of temperature data is incredibly narrow. Even though the past couple of years have been cooler than the record warmest years of 1998 and 2005, they are much warmer than scientists would otherwise expect from only natural causes. Global warming from heat-trapping emissions is happening on top of natural climate cycles that fluctuate over time. 1998 was particularly hot because global warming combined with a natural and periodic El Nino effect in the Pacific Ocean that was quite strong in that year.
"Furthermore, climate scientists study trends over significantly longer periods of time than single seasons or years. The past decade has been the hottest on record. We can expect future decades to be hotter still. How hot will depend on how much more heat-trapping emission we put into the atmosphere.
"George Will should stop distorting the facts about climate science. He is giving wrong information to his readers."
BACKGROUND
A 2007 study published in Science identifies how much higher temperatures are today and in past years compared to what scientists would expect from natural climate drivers alone.
The World Meteorological Organization concluded that the decade 1998-2007 was the hottest on record.
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
