Climate change denial took a hit this year. While it’s true super-denier Trump is now appointing ridiculously unqualified men and women who are openly hostile to the environmental and science-based organizations they will run (into the ground), the climate itself refused to go along with the ruse. Last year was the hottest on record and the last few years were among the hottest before it. Worst of all, fossil fuel toadies had to bid farewell to one of their most beloved zombie lies: the global warming pause.
The NOAA study, published in the prestigious journal Science, found that the slowdown in global warming never actually happened. Instead, improperly adjusted data on surface temperatures made for an artificial lull in the warming trend. When NOAA researchers corrected their temperature datasets, they found that Earth's climate had warmed by a larger amount than previously thought.
But now the usual suspects think maybe, just maybe, they can resurrect that undead talking point and parade it about one more time. Over the weekend, several media outlets, led by a tabloid writer infamous for reporting alternative facts, claimed a retired NOAA scientist has “blown the lid” off the warming pause cover-up. The House Committee promoting pseudoscience, led by Lamar Smith (R-Clown), just about lost their minds in a tweet-storm of epic proportion as ably documented here by Bo Gardiner.
Take a good look at the front page of today’s Daily Mail. Yes, children, this august institution is now to be our nation’s primary science source, driving the well-being of the planet and all who dwell upon it.
For those too young or who weren’t paying close attention during the Bush years, better get used to this, folks. The effort to downplay global warming is well-funded, the clowns promoting it are very well paid, it’s not going to go away for a long time, or until the money dries up, whichever comes first, and they now have allies in the White House soon to be sitting at the head of every federal agency responsible for monitoring the environment. They will claim—and some of them may genuinely believe—that a conspiracy of thousands of scientists spanning every continent over two generations has been ginning up fake data to needlessly scare the world without ever getting caught.