by ROHIT CHANDAN & JIM NAURECKAS
Breitbart belongs to the “I have to wear a hat, how can there be global warming?” school of climate science
The US House Committee on Science, Space and Technology recently tweeted an article by Breitbart, stating “@BreitbartNews: Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence From Climate Alarmists.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ responded to the committee’s tweet: “Where’d you get your PhD? Trump University?”
Where’d you get your PhD? Trump University? https://t.co/P5Ez5fVEwD
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 1, 2016
Sadly, Sanders’ quip isn’t too far from the truth. Breitbart is an outlet notorious for publishing false and hateful articles, and its CEO, Steve O’Bannon, is now the chief strategist for President-elect Donald Trump—meaning that even if Trump doesn’t read a Breitbart article, there’s a good chance that it will influence his worldview.
The article—by Breitbart’s James Delingpole (11/30/16)—centers on the fact that global temperatures, which reached an all-time peak in March 2016, have declined since then—news “that has been greeted with an eerie silence by the world’s alarmist community,” Breitbart reports. In fact, no one should be surprised that record-high temperatures are followed by lower temperatures—any more than one should be surprised that next to the world’s tallest tree is another tree that, though also a redwood, is not the world’s tallest.
Breitbart makes much of the fact that El Niño, a cyclic Pacific Ocean weather phenomenon, has contributed to record temperatures this year and last year—as though the observation that El Niño years are warmer than usual were not a reality understood and acknowledged by every climate scientist.
As the Columbia University’s Earth Institute (State of the Planet, 2/2/16) reported early this year:
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting for more