On Climate Volatility and Contrarian “Science”
Debunking sensational scientists amid unprecedented temperature, sea level, and atmospheric CO2
2020 has brought fires, floods and hurricanes across the world alongside novel forms of climate change denialism. Consider Patrick Moore, a so-called scientist with a significant Twitter following who claims:
“Any effect of CO2 on temperature could easily be overridden by other factors. The long historical record does not support CO2 as some kind of control knob as NASA claims. They’re not in sync.”
To support his contrarian claim, Moore posts a compelling visual of CO2 levels vs. global temperature, albeit without citation. The chart seems to indicate a dubious correlation between CO2 and temperature (although it also seems that in the past 65 million years CO2 levels and temperature have declined in parallel).
As is often the problem with social media, it is difficult to verify the claims of influential contrarians who invoke “logic” while obscuring methodology. As logical observers, we have a couple reasonable options:
