People who deny that the world is warming rapidly due to the burning of dirty energy sources must go out of their way to try to get around the science.
Rosh D'Arcy (@all_about_climate), a doctoral candidate and an expert in the field with degrees in Earth and climate science, spends much of his time on TikTok debunking these folks.
@all_about_climate Is climate change rapidly accelerating? Debunking Jordan Peterson on Climate Change. #climatechange #globalwarming #Jordanpeterson #debunked #science #climatecrisis #climateaction #factcheck ♬ original sound - Rosh
In a video from April, he lined up against Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist and author. In an interview, Peterson challenged the notion that rising temperatures have "dramatically accelerated, even in the last couple of decades."
"Maybe. Possibly. It's not so obvious," he claimed — and even defended his stance by offering a source, albeit general. He said he had read 200 books on ecology and economy, though he had trouble defining this genre of "relevant literature."
"Books on ecological economy — whatever he said — they don't tell you anything about climate science," Rosh counters. "That's a different field. They might be related; they might both be vaguely dealing with the environment. But if you want to find out if the world is rapidly warming, you don't go to ecology, and you certainly don't go to economics."
Rosh says paleoclimate science research, his area of expertise, will establish a baseline for climate in a geological context and rates of change.
"If you look at the geological data," Rosh continues, "you can clearly see that the modern rate of warming is pretty exceptional, so I don't know why he was reading ecological economic books. That's not going to tell you anything about rates of warming and what's normal and all of that stuff. So, yeah, Jordan, mate, just read the relevant literature please."
The global temperature has risen about two degrees Fahrenheit since 1850, or about 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But since 1982, the rate of warming is 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.
The last time Earth had a cooler than average year was 1976.
It's damning, then, when educated people spew misinformation and disinformation, which only encourages others to ignore problems such as increasingly intense and frequent extreme weather events, human health impacts, biodiversity loss, and other negative impacts of anthropogenic climate change.
Governments and corporations are responsible for much of this issue and must be held responsible, while we as individuals can take steps to decarbonize our energy usage, prioritize our health, and support our ecosystems — all of which come with the added bonus of saving money.
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