{"id":328452,"date":"2024-05-12T15:58:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T13:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328452"},"modified":"2024-05-12T15:58:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T13:58:16","slug":"a-note-to-the-guardian-opinion-is-not-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328452","title":{"rendered":"A Note to The Guardian \u2013 Opinion Is NOT Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A recent article in the newspaper The Guardian <\/em>reports that some of the \u201dworld\u2019s top climate scientists\u201d believe that disaster is soon to occur due to what they claim will be an additional degree of warming on the planet. This is a false narrative. The earth has experienced similar temperatures in the past without disastrous consequences. In addition, one should note that opinion when it comes to climate science has had a terrible track record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opinion piece, titled \u201cWorld\u2019s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target<\/a>,\u201d starts off with gloom and doom in the first couple of paragraphs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the scientists envisage a \u201csemi-dystopian\u201d future, with famines, conflicts, and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, as Climate Realism<\/em> has previously discussed, here<\/a>, for instance, the 1.5\u00b0C so-called limit is an arbitrarily made-up threshold. There is no scientific evidence that surpassing the 1.5\u2103 politically established amount of warming will result in worsening extreme weather events. What\u2019s true of the 1.5\u2103 threshold is equally true of the 2\u00b0C limit, as Roger Pielke Jr., Ph.D. explains in his article, The Two Degree Temperature Target is Arbitrary and Untethered<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Guardian<\/em> article, the opinion of \u201cclimate experts\u201d suggests that disasters are afoot, with experts telling the paper that \u201cmassive preparations to protect people from the worst of the coming climate disasters were now critical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leticia Cotrim da Cunha, at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said: \u201cI am extremely worried about the costs in human lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am convinced that we have all the solutions needed for a 1.5C path and that we will implement them in the coming 20 years,\u201d said Henry Neufeldt, at the U.N.\u2019s Copenhagen Climate Centre. \u201cBut I fear that our actions might come too late and we cross one or several tipping points<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s ironic, is that both The Guardian<\/em> and those \u201cclimate experts\u201d have missed the fact that in Europe, both the 1.5\u00b0 and 2\u00b0C \u201climits\u201d have already been surpassed, with no deleterious effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below in Figure 1 is the Berkeley Earth average surface temperature record for Europe since about 1780. Europe is a good location to analyze, because some of the longest continuous temperature records are from Europe. It shows that not just 1.5\u00b0C, but\u00a02.0\u00b0C<\/em>\u00a0of warming has already occurred<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 1. (click to enlarge) Berkeley Earth average European temperature showing a 2.0\u00b0C rise since about 1820. Source: http:\/\/berkeleyearth.lbl.gov\/regions\/europe<\/a> Annotated by Anthony Watts<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Claims that reaching such temperatures supposedly driven by increased carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere are causing or will cause disasters, such as climate tipping points<\/a>, have been repeatedly debunked at Climate Realism<\/em>, not a single one of those predictions has come true<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Cotrim da Cunha\u2019s stated worry that warming will result in more humans dying is belied by the fact that research shows that 10 to 17 time more people die of cold than heat, and that as the Earth has warmed the number of people dying from temperature related illnesses has fallen dramatically. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that track record, it hardly seems likely that some additional warming will result in disasters. According to a\u00a02023 study by the University of California Santa Cruz<\/a>, Earth has experienced higher CO2 levels and warmer temperature in the past, as seen in Figure 2 below:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 2. Temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide over the past 66 million years. Bottom numbers indicate millions of years in the past; right-hand numbers, carbon dioxide in parts per million. Hotter colors indicate distinct periods of higher temperatures; deeper blues, lower ones. The solid zigzagging line charts contemporaneous carbon dioxide levels; shaded area around it reflects uncertainty in the curve. (Adapted from CenCO2PIP, Science 2023)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Earth survived, and history shows that humans are highly adaptable, thus the alarm over missing some arbitrary climate target temperatures we\u2019ve already reached is both unjustified and moot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we have here is nothing more than an opinion poll of people whose entire careers are built upon hyping climate catastrophe, whose and reputations will be destroyed if the climate crisis narrative is untrue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific thinking and practice involves forming testable hypotheses<\/a>, deciding how to test those hypotheses, doing the tests and analyzing the results to formulate proof and test theory. The claims of climate catastrophes, when they have been tested by experience and time, have proven false. And the future disastrous climate scenarios the experts are forecasting can\u2019t be confirmed outside of the climate models that the self-same experts reference and rely upon to for their opinions. Opinion about science is not science at all but a belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0article is not news, but rather simply gives voice to so-called \u201cexperts,\u201d whose past claims about the future are one long\u00a0train\u00a0<\/a>of failed predictions.\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0has proven time and again that when it comes to \u201creporting\u201d on climate change, it and its writers are shameless promoters of the climate crisis narrative which has no basis in evidence or data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article in the newspaper The Guardian reports that some of the \u201dworld\u2019s top climate scientists\u201d believe that disaster is soon to occur due to what they claim will be an additional degree of warming on the planet. This is a false narrative. The earth has experienced similar temperatures in the past without disastrous consequences. In addition, one should note that opinion when it comes to climate science has had a terrible track record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":328459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828594,691819659,691823548,691818262],"class_list":{"0":"post-328452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-1-5-threshold","9":"tag-climate-scientists","10":"tag-global-heating","11":"tag-the-guardian","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/OIG-2023-07-29T140658.612.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1nrC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":207668,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=207668","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":0},"title":"The Guardian Stumbles into the \u201cTruthful Reporting\u201d Trap When it Comes to Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent\u00a0press release\u00a0about a study from The Ohio State University (OSU) titled \u201cScience coverage of climate change can change minds \u2013 briefly,\u201d states \u201c[a]ccurate beliefs fade quickly, especially if challenged.\u201d The Guardian\u00a0newspaper\u00a0covered the story, but they blew the \u201caccurate beliefs\u201d mantra in the first sentence of their story by stating:\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0belief-system_180302794_s.jpg?fit=873%2C548&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0belief-system_180302794_s.jpg?fit=873%2C548&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0belief-system_180302794_s.jpg?fit=873%2C548&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0belief-system_180302794_s.jpg?fit=873%2C548&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":274506,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274506","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":1},"title":"What Has Happened to the\u00a0Guardian?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers Thomas Jefferson","rel":"","context":"In \"2022 flooding\"","block_context":{"text":"2022 flooding","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=2022-flooding"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG-59.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG-59.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG-59.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG-59.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":257989,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=257989","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":2},"title":"Scientists Pushing Net Zero Complain of Hurty Feelings on Twitter","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been another sighting of the regular complaint that climate scientists are being subject to hurty comments on Twitter. The\u00a0Guardian\u00a0reports a \u201chuge\u201d rise\u00a0in abuse since Elon Musk took over the platform last year.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate deniers\"","block_context":{"text":"climate deniers","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-deniers"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00tweetrvlsoft.jpg?fit=1200%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00tweetrvlsoft.jpg?fit=1200%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00tweetrvlsoft.jpg?fit=1200%2C417&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00tweetrvlsoft.jpg?fit=1200%2C417&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00tweetrvlsoft.jpg?fit=1200%2C417&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":259826,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=259826","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":3},"title":"Wrong, The Guardian, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Causing More Climbing Deaths on Mount Everest","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"31\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0claims that climate change is killing people on Mount Everest. This is a false. Climate change is not highly localized nor does it occur in a single year. Evidence suggests other factors are behind the recent increase in deaths on Mount Everest.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0where-is-mount-everest-568b305f3df78ccc1543f913.jpg?fit=1200%2C812&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0where-is-mount-everest-568b305f3df78ccc1543f913.jpg?fit=1200%2C812&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0where-is-mount-everest-568b305f3df78ccc1543f913.jpg?fit=1200%2C812&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0where-is-mount-everest-568b305f3df78ccc1543f913.jpg?fit=1200%2C812&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0where-is-mount-everest-568b305f3df78ccc1543f913.jpg?fit=1200%2C812&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":410750,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=410750","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":4},"title":"Guardian Ramps Up Efforts to Ban All Climate Dissent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"No green activist operation makes clearer why they need to ban free speech and cancel scientific debate to achieve Net Zero hegemony than the Guardian newspaper. Last Saturday, we learnt from its Environment Editor Damian Carrington that campaigners had said the UK\u2019s TV and radio regulator Ofcom was allowing GB\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Censorship\"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=censorship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ministery-of-truth-1984.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ministery-of-truth-1984.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ministery-of-truth-1984.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ministery-of-truth-1984.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ministery-of-truth-1984.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":328934,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=328934","url_meta":{"origin":328452,"position":5},"title":"Many of the \u2018Climate Experts\u2019 Surveyed by the Guardian in Recent Propaganda Blitz Turn Out to be Emotionally-Unstable Hysterics","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Guardian\u00a0last week published its survey of \u2018climate experts\u2019. The results are a predictable mush of fire-and-brimstone predictions and emotional incontinence. This stunt may have convinced those already aligned to the newspaper\u2019s ideological agenda to redouble their characteristically shrill rhetoric, but encouraging scientists to speculate and emote about the future of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"1.5\u00baC target\"","block_context":{"text":"1.5\u00baC target","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1-5oc-target"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/08SR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/08SR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/08SR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/08SR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/08SR.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=328452"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328460,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328452\/revisions\/328460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}