Fox News is patting itself on the back for "inspiring" a recent study showing that China's sulfur output has been masking the effects of global warming. It points to an interview that lead researcher Robert Kaufmann did with the BBC, where he said he looked into the issue because an old man told him Fox News said the planet was cooling. Hooray, Fox News got mentioned on a real news site! Break out the Confederate flag party hats! Too bad the rest of that article is about Kaufmann making that old man, and his Fox News overlords, look pretty silly indeed.
See, the study found that this brief drop in temperatures, long the darling of Fox News and other deniers, was actually the result of short-term coal pollution effects temporarily covering up long-term carbon emissions. Skeptics have been excitedly pointing out this period of slowed warming for a while, citing it as evidence that everyone's exaggerating. Turns out, nope: In fact, the extent of the carbon problem is just being masked by the sulfur problem. Here's how Kaufmann sums it up in that selfsame BBC article:
People can choose not to believe in [man-made] climate change — but the correct term here is 'belief' – believing is an act of faith, whereas science is a testing of hypotheses and seeing whether they hold up against real world data.
Even before this paper there wasn't much scientific evidence for denying climate change, and now I don't see any credible scientific contradiction — if people don't believe it, it'll be because they choose not to believe it.
But that is all the way at the bottom of the page! Fox News didn't read that far — it got distracted by an item about the Casey Anthony trial and just made up the rest. Thus, it claims the study says global warming "stopped," and earlier (in an even more spectacular misinterpretation) said it showed that "greenhouse gas emissions reduce global warming." Can't wait to see those reporters' faces next time someone rebuts their favorite "but what about this period of cooling" hobby horse with "Fox-inspired" science.
