The climate science denying group the Global Warming Policy Foundation has admitted that it shared an โerroneousโ temperature dataset to support Lord Lawsonโs false claims to the BBC last week that global temperatures arenโt rising.
Three days after Lawsonโs BBC interview โ which was immediately and widely criticised in the media and by scientists โ the climate denial group tweeted out Sunday afternoon that it was โhappy to correct the recordโ and has since removed the tweet after a request to do so by climate scientist Ed Hawkins.
According to the tweets, the graph was originally produced by US meteorologist Ryan Maue, an adjunct scholar of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute co-founded by Charles Koch. It was published by weather forecaster and climate science denier Joe Bastardi. Both Bastardi and Maue work for WeatherBELL Analytics, a private weather consulting firm.
Screenshot of GWPF tweets taken on August 14 2017.
Thanks for acknowledging this Benny. Are you could to delete the original tweet so that this erroneous claim doesnโt spread further?
โ Ed Hawkins (@ed_hawkins) August 13, 2017
Indeed. My bias, my mistake.
โ GWPF (@thegwpfcom) August 13, 2017
As a number of climate scientists have been quick to point out, Lawson was wrong to claim that the average global temperature has โslightly declinedโ since 2007. In fact, the global surface temperature over this period has risen, with the three hottest years on record occurring in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
In addition to being a reaction to those debunking the graphโs false and misleading claims, the GWPFโs efforts to distance themselves from the inaccurate data comes one day after neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer featured a story using the same graph with the headline โItโs Colder Now Than When Al Gore Won the Nobel Prize for Kook Theory in 2007โ.
Headed over to Daily Stormer to see just how bad the #charlottesville Naziโs site is. Itโs bad. But wasnโt surprised to see its 4th storyโฆ pic.twitter.com/IOft4omAWV
โ Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) August 13, 2017
Yep. pic.twitter.com/6bnunijWE1
โ Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) August 13, 2017
The article was published on Saturday August 12 and appeared next to stories about the Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist rally over the weekend. (Hackers purportedly linked to international hacking network Anonymous have now reportedly taken over the website with a headline reading โEnd of hateโ.)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons | CC 2.0
