The myth that scientists in the ‘70s were predicting a global cooling is a mainstay among deniers, and the idea that extreme cooling is the sort of climate change we should be worried about remains a recurring topic in denier outlets.
Last week, for example, the Daily Mail ran a story by Stacy Liberatore with the alarming headline that “Earth is facing another ICE AGE: Scientists claim an increase in sea ice could block the release of carbon dioxide from the ocean and cause a global COOLING.” The research was covered the same way by Fox News’s Chris Ciaccia, and then was picked up by GWPF, making its way around the deniersphere from there.The story showed up on the official website of David Icke, who believes Earth has been taken over by shape-shifting reptilian aliens, among other less frivolous conspiracies like Holocaust denial.
The problem is, as you may suspect, the research cited was in no way claiming that Earth is facing another ice age.
One of the report’s authors even said as much. Dr. Alice Marzocchi took to Twitter to point out that the Fox article, which was framed around the possibility of a new ice age, “utterly misrepresents our research,” which “does NOT in any way suggest that we may presently be heading towards another ice age!”
Regarding the Daily Mail story, Dr. Marzocchi advised that “journalists should learn how to read and/or contact the authors of the research before publishing a load of garbage that only confuses people!”
While the study, published in Nature Geosciences, does say “global cooling” in the title, that’s because it’s about glacial movement over the past 2.5 million years, and says absolutely nothing about the future (particularly one in which humanity is pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere).
Climate Feedback wrote up a piece on the faulty stories, with more explanation from one of the other co-authors. The piece notes that while the stories have since been updated and corrected, “when shared on social media, both articles are still featured with a text falsely claiming that we are facing another ice age.” Comparing the original with the corrected FoxNews and Daily Mail stories makes it clear just how badly the reporters botched the first version.
Now, it’s certainly possible that these were mistakes made in good faith by reporters who were in way over their head. The Daily Mail reporter also writes “Science” stories about how new headphones look like a Pokemon, and the Fox News reporter’s latest story as of Friday afternoon was about a dog ringing a doorbell.
But the fact that the spin both outlets put on the story so closely reflects the recurring global cooling myth deniers push makes it reasonable to wonder if the editors at their respective Murdoch media outlets were keen to embrace the global cooling angle.
Either way, here’s a helpful tip for evaluating claims: if it’s something that would seem natural on David Icke’s website alongside crop circles, anti-vaxx stories and “accessing timeless, quantum godhood,” maybe reconsider publishing.
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