Wall Street Journal: Relax, Climate Change is No Big Deal

The Wall Street Journal editorial page, dedicated as always to telling its readers what they want to hear, tells them today that climate change is no big deal. Here is longtime climate denier Fred Singer on sea level rise:

By studying a very short time interval, it is possible to sidestep most of the complications, like “isostatic adjustment” of the shoreline (as continents rise after the overlying ice has melted) and “subsidence” of the shoreline (as ground water and minerals are extracted).

I chose to assess the sea-level trend from 1915-45, when a genuine, independently confirmed warming of approximately 0.5 degree Celsius occurred. I note particularly that sea-level rise is not affected by the warming; it continues at the same rate, 1.8 millimeters a year, according to a 1990 review by Andrew S. Trupin and John Wahr. I therefore conclude—contrary to the general wisdom—that the temperature of sea water has no direct effect on sea-level rise. That means neither does the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide.

This conclusion is worth highlighting: It shows that sea-level rise does not depend on the use of fossil fuels. The evidence should allay fear that the release of additional CO2 will increase sea-level rise.

Big words? Check. Cherry-picked timeframe? Check. Climate change is bunk? Check. No long-term chart just for laughs? Check.

I’m no scientist, but I can copy numbers into Excel and then present them to the world. This task was probably too time consuming for the Journal—they’re busy people, after all—so I’m happy to lend a hand in my own poor way. Here it is:

As you can see, global temperature increases in fits and spurts, but has nonetheless been rising steadily. Sea level rise follows at the same rate, but its growth is steadier since the oceans are vast heat sinks that tend to react slowly to a single year’s change in average temperature. The period from 1915-1945 is nothing special.

Most of us in the lefty pundit biz have long since taken a pledge not to waste time responding to the Journal’s op-ed page. Virtually every piece is a deliberate attempt to misstate the truth in some way, and once you go down the rabbit hole you could dedicate your entire life to nothing else. And make no mistake: despite all the earnest calls from conservatives for more ideological diversity in the nation’s op-ed pages, the Journal has no intention of hiring any liberal columnists to provide their readers with an alternate worldview. If they ever call to offer me a weekly slot, I’ll let you know.

Still, every once in a while I see something so dumb that I weaken and feel like I have to respond. Today was one of those days.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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