Newsflash: Not All Climate Stories are Dismal, Scientists Actually Try to Discover the Truth

Methane Leaks Not Caused by Human-induced Climate Change,

NPR aired a story this week about what scientists thought, in 2008,  were ominous signs of a warming ocean.  Churning bubbles of methane — a very potent greenhouse gas — were pouring out of the ocean floor in Arctic Norway.  Scientists theorized that as the globe and the oceans warmed, the methane trapped in the ocean floor was leaking out and could, potentially, accelerate global warming.

Climate change deniers frequently accuse scientists and the United Nations of perpetrating a hoax on the public in claiming that humans are causing the globe to warm.  How this vast conspiracy would work is, of course, unclear, though part of the story is supposedly that scientists want grant money and can only get it if they peddle research aimed at confirming the conspiracy.  Another part is that Democrats use global warming to justify imposing burdensome regulations on businesses, well, apparently just because Democrats like regulating for no apparent reason.

If the conspiracy is actually working, then scientists should leave alone stories like the methane leaks in the Arctic Ocean, right?  But the scientists who originally discovered the methane leaks and worried about their origins did what good scientists are paid to do:  they attempted to discover whether their hypothesis that modern climate change was causing or at least contributing to the leaks was accurate.   And they found, instead, that their hypothesis was wrong.  Subsequent expeditions to the Arctic floor demonstrated that the leaks have occurred for thousands of years and are thus most likely naturally occurring, not the result of human-induced climate change.

Maybe the scientists who refuted their initial hypothesis were somehow left out of the conspiracy.  But how, then, do the climate deniers explain why one of the leading scientific journals in the world, Science, chose to publish their article?

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Reader Comments

One Reply to “Newsflash: Not All Climate Stories are Dismal, Scientists Actually Try to Discover the Truth”

  1. Ann said;
    “…..Climate change deniers frequently accuse scientists and the United Nations of perpetrating a hoax on the public in claiming that humans are causing the globe to warm….”

    Dear Ann,
    We do not deny that the climate is changing – that is not the hoax. The real hoax is the ridiculous claim by the California Environmental Bar that they somehow “know” how to slow and reverse climate change by employing fraudulent gimmicks such as cap and trade, carbon taxes, renewables, solar, high speed rail, etc; all of which have no measurable impact on global climate and do not effectively mitigate climate change.

    The erroneous presumption that “climate scientists” possess the knowledge of how to change the climate back to where it was in the past, is the real big fat hoax.This is yet another vivid illustration of why Deniers rule. Get your facts straight and come on over to our side.

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About Ann

Ann Carlson is currently on leave from UCLA School of Law. She is the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and was the founding Faculty Director of the Emmett I…

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About Ann

Ann Carlson is currently on leave from UCLA School of Law. She is the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and was the founding Faculty Director of the Emmett I…

READ more

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