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Alexis Berg
Research Associate, Harvard University
Expertise: Land-atmosphere interactions, Climate impacts on agroecosystems
Details:
Hypothesis handle: Alexis_b
Qualifying publication(s): see criteria
ARTICLES REVIEWED
CO2 coalition sponsored article in The Washington Times presents list of false and misleading statements about the impacts of CO2 and climate change
in The Washington Times, by Gregory Wrightstone
— 05 May 2021
"This article recycles old tropes such as “it’s been warm before”, “CO2 levels have been higher in the past” (millions of years ago!), “CO2 is plant food”, “warming..
Video interview of Ian Plimer at Sky News falsely claims that a new study announces an incoming ice age, partly based on an incorrect Daily Mail headline
in Sky News, by Ian Plimer
— 20 Jan 2021
"This video is chock full of false and misleading information, and presented in a way to make the correct scientific information seem like a farce. For example, the direct link bet..
Ian Plimer op-ed in The Australian again presents long list of false claims about climate
in The Australian, by Ian Plimer
— 26 Nov 2019
"This article is a mixture of misdirection, misleading claims, and outright falsehoods. The author attempts to paint a picture of current climate change as simply a continuation of..
New York Times op-ed claiming scientists underestimated climate change lacks supporting evidence
in The New York Times, by Eugene Linden
— 18 Nov 2019
"Most of the specific facts and statistics in this op-ed are correct, but the overall effect is significantly misleading. The author’s central point is that scientists have been ..
Guardian story conveys statement by scientists stressing role of deforestation in climate change
in The Guardian, by Oliver Milman
— 09 Oct 2018
"The article correctly links estimates of current carbon dioxide emissions from land use and land cover change with fairly conservative estimates for potential carbon sequestration..
Guardian coverage of essay on potential of future “hothouse” climate is generally accurate, but misstates some details
in The Guardian, by Jonathan Watts
— 09 Aug 2018
"The article reasonably summarizes a new study published in PNAS, which describes the potential of tipping elements to enhance climate warming and the potential for the Earth to tr..
Atlantic story on the climate implications of reduced beef consumption could provide clearer context
in The Atlantic, by James Hamblin
— 17 Jan 2018
"The article explains the issue (meat production diverts crops from humans to cattle) on a simple level. More explanation and more context could have been provided, I think, regard..
Daily Caller uncritically reports poorly supported conclusion of satellite temperature study
in The Daily Caller, by Michael Bastasch
— 04 Dec 2017
"The absence of accelerating warming trends is meant to go against prevailing climate science, but I find that to be a strawman argument. In that sense the article is misleading—..
Scientists explain what New York Magazine article on “The Uninhabitable Earth” gets wrong
in New York Magazine, by David Wallace-Wells
— 12 Jul 2017
"While it is clear that ongoing warming of the global climate would eventually have very severe consequences, the concept of the Earth becoming uninhabitable within anywhere near t..
Playing semantics, misleading Breitbart article downplays US contribution to climate change
in Breitbart, by Thomas D. Williams
— 06 Jun 2017
"This whole post is based on semantics and basically one big strawman fallacy. The author is deliberately confusing air pollution from suspended particulate matter (as discussed in..
CLAIMS REVIEWED
CO2 can increase plant growth in greenhouses while also negatively affecting ecosystems and human societies
CLAIM
CO2 is a plant nutrient...it’s not a pollutant that threatens human civilization. If CO2 was so terrible for the planet, then installing a CO2 generator in a greenhouse would kill the plants.
SOURCE: Mike Adams, Natural News
Published: 19 Mar 2020
VERDICT
2°C is not known to be a “point of no return”, as Jonathan Franzen claims
CLAIM
The consensus among scientists and policy-makers is that we’ll pass this point of no return if the global mean temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius
SOURCE: Jonathan Franzen, The New Yorker
Published: 17 Sep 2019
VERDICT
Prof. John Christy incorrectly claims to show climate models are too sensitive to carbon dioxide
CLAIM
the real atmosphere is less sensitive to CO2 than what has been forecast by climate models
SOURCE: John Christy, The Daily Caller
Published: 01 Dec 2017
VERDICT
In CNN interview, William Happer misleads about the impact of rising carbon dioxide on plant life
CLAIM
there's this myth that's developed around carbon dioxide that it's a pollutant […] Carbon dioxide is a perfectly natural gas, it’s just like water vapor, it’s something that plants love.
SOURCE: William Happer, CNN
Published: 25 Apr 2017
VERDICT
