Wood Romances

On September 6 , Matthew Wielicki posted a claim on X that global warming isn't a problem because 2°C warming by 2100 is "about the temperature change from 8am to 10am in most major cities." He then showed a graph of expected temperature changes from 8 am to10 am, from sunrise to afternoon, January to July, etc for various cities. I think it's fairly easy to show that Wielicki is being dishonest here, since he also flatly contradicts this claim. But before showing him contradicting this claim, let's explain Wielicki's horrible logic. In effect, he's making the simple mistake of confusing local diurnal and seasonal temperature changes with global climate change. When the global mean becomes 2°C warmer, the distribution of temperatures locally and globally also changes, making what used to be extreme heat far more common. In another post, I document that there has been a 220x increase in frequency  of extreme summer heat in NH land temperatures with respect...

It's become clear to me over the last 5-10 years that one of the greatest challenges hindering productive climate discussions has to do with the lack of scientific literacy. Frequently I when I write posts that articulate my position I cite the scientific literature that supports my position, and it's extremely rare that contrarians actually read what I wrote and respond to its contents. I'll instead get responses that 1) attack me, 2) accuse the scientific literature of being biased/fraudulent, or 3) attempt to change the subject. I get exactly the same kinds of responses if I cite the scientific literature directly. It's easy to conclude from this that climate contrarians are simply obstinate, refusing to read the literature that proves them wrong. And while that may be the case, there may be an even simpler explanation - scientific literacy. The PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) has six proficiency levels for literacy. These ar...