Thomas Frederikse
Wall Street Journal article repeats multiple incorrect and misleading claims made in Steven Koonin’s new book ’Unsettled’
Scientists who reviewed the article found that it builds on a collection of misleading and false claims. For instance, Koonin states that “Greenland’s ice sheet isn’t shrinking any more rapidly today than it was eighty years ago”. Contrary to the claim, scientific studies using airborne and satellite altimetry observations show considerable thinning has occurred along the margin of the Greenland ice sheet since 2003.
Rates of global sea level rise have accelerated since 1900, contrary to bloggers’ claims
Claim:
“there has not been a long-term distinctive change in sea level rise rates in the last 120 years”
Global data contradict claim of no acceleration in sea level rise
Claim:
The long-term tide gauge datasets are all in agreement that there is no acceleration
Sea levels rose faster in the past century than in previous time periods
Claim:
Sea level rise has been slow and a constant, pre-dating industrialization
Sea levels have risen throughout the 20th century, contrary to claim in online articles
Claim:
Scientists were caught 'adjusting' sea level data to create false impression of rising oceans
Story on congressman's incorrect claims about sea level rise could have corrected them more explicitly
“The comments from the members of the Committee suffer from severe inaccuracies and misconceptions, and citations of the invited climate scientist mostly address those issues.
In general, the views that go against our understanding of the climate change process are underlined and presented as such by the author, but rarely supported by statements or explanations that go beyond the immediate replies from the invited climate scientist. Some of the inaccurate statements quoted in the text are thus left with an incomplete challenge.”
Washington Post article accurately describes latest estimate of accelerating Antarctic ice loss
“The article presents the results of the study accurately, and uses multiple comments from scientists both involved and not-involved in the study to highlight the key findings. Some of the explanations are simplified, and there is a slight attempt at the end to downplay the results by suggesting scientists can’t predict the future. It is correct that the study presented is not making predictions, rather documenting past changes, but the positive trend is what we would expect based on the longer record of change we have for glaciers and ice caps.”