Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Settings


All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Home Arguments Software Resources Comments The Consensus Project Translations About Support

Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Mastodon MeWe

Twitter YouTube RSS Posts RSS Comments Email Subscribe


Climate's changed before
It's the sun
It's not bad
There is no consensus
It's cooling
Models are unreliable
Temp record is unreliable
Animals and plants can adapt
It hasn't warmed since 1998
Antarctica is gaining ice
View All Arguments...



Username
Password
New? Register here
Forgot your password?

Latest Posts

Archives

Climate Misinformation by Source: John Christy

Dr. John Christy is a Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).  He has also been Alabama's State Climatologist since November 2000. He is mostly known for his work with the satellite-based temperature monitoring for which he and Dr. Roy Spencer received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.  Christy helped draft and signed the 2003 American Geophysical Union statement on climate change [Source: Wikipedia].

Dr. Christy believes that the climate system is quite insensitive to humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions and doubts that human activity is to blame for most of the observed recent warming.

Other professional affiliations:  Dr. Christy is listed as a "Roundtable Speaker" for the George C. Marshall Institute, a right-wing conservative think tank on scientific issues and public policy.  He is also listed as an expert for the Heartland Institute, a libertarian American public policy think tank [Source: DeSmogBlog]

Quotes Articles Arguments Blogs Links Search 

Favourite climate myths by John Christy

Below are many of the climate myths used by John Christy plus how often each myth has been used.

Climate myths by Christy What the Science Says Usage
"CO2 limits will make little difference"

If every nation agrees to limit CO2 emissions, we can achieve significant cuts on a global scale.

4
"It's Urban Heat Island effect" Urban and rural regions show the same warming trend. 3
"CO2 limits will harm the economy"

The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over.

3
"Models are unreliable"

Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean.

2
"Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming"

Extreme weather events are being made more frequent and worse by global warming.

2
"CO2 limits will hurt the poor"

Those who contribute the least greenhouse gases will be most impacted by climate change.

2
"It's not us"

Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change.

2
"It's not urgent"

A large amount of warming is delayed, and if we don’t act now we could pass tipping points.

2
"Arctic sea ice loss is matched by Antarctic sea ice gain" Arctic sea ice loss is three times greater than Antarctic sea ice gain. 2
"Temp record is unreliable" The warming trend is the same in rural and urban areas, measured by thermometers and satellites. 2
"Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected" This argument ignores the cooling effect of aerosols and the planet's thermal inertia. 2
"Satellites show no warming in the troposphere" The most recent satellite data show that the earth as a whole is warming. 1
"Climate sensitivity is low"

Net positive feedback is confirmed by many different lines of evidence.

1
"There's no tropospheric hot spot"

We see a clear "short-term hot spot" - there's various evidence for a "long-term hot spot".

1
"It's microsite influences"

Microsite influences on temperature changes are minimal; good and bad sites show the same trend.

1
"It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low" Early 20th century warming is due to several causes, including rising CO2. 1
"CO2 was higher in the past"

Climate has changed along with CO2 levels through geological time.

1
"CO2 is plant food"

The effects of enhanced CO2 on terrestrial plants are variable and complex and dependent on numerous factors

1
"Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong"

Jim Hansen had several possible scenarios; his mid-level scenario B was right.

1
"Infrared Iris will reduce global warming"

The iris hypothesis has not withstood the test of time - subsequent research has found that if it exists, the effect is much smaller than originally hypothesized, and may even slightly amplify rather than reducing global warming.

1

Back to Climate Misinformation by Source



The Consensus Project Website

THE ESCALATOR

(free to republish)


© Copyright 2024 John Cook
Home | Translations | About Us | Privacy | Contact Us