Reto Knutti

Professor, ETH Zürich

Expertise: Climate projections, Attribution, Feedbacks, and Sensitivity

Details:

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ARTICLES REVIEWED

Article in The Guardian misleads readers about sensitivity of climate models by narrowly focusing on single study

in The Guardian, by Jonathan Watts

— 18 Jun 2020

"The article correctly reports that the most recent versions of some climate models estimate more warming for a given increase in CO2 concentrations. It is also correct in highligh..

Financial Post commentary misleads about warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions by cherry-picking studies

in Financial Post, by Ross McKitrick

— 22 Jun 2018

"This article selectively cherry-picks studies showing low climate sensitivity, leaving out whole lines of evidence (e.g. paleoclimate studies) that agree with the sensitivity esti..

CLAIMS REVIEWED

YouTube video falsely claims that climate models systematically over-estimated warming and that we are heading towards an ice age

CLAIM
"The official observed temperatures are coming consistently below the scary global warming numbers"; "Melting polar ice triggers ice age"

SOURCE: Ben Davidson, Suspicious0bservers

Published: 27 May 2021

VERDICT

Caleb Rossiter falsely claims that climate models are “running very hot”

CLAIM
The models predicted about three times the amount of warming in the world we’ve seen since [1988].

SOURCE: Caleb Rossiter, The Hill

Published: 11 Mar 2019

VERDICT

On BBC Newsnight, Myron Ebell falsely claims climate models exaggerate warming

CLAIM
The rate of warming according to the data is much slower than the models used by the IPCC

SOURCE: Myron Ebell, BBC Newsnight

Published: 09 Oct 2018

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

Daily Wire article incorrectly claims climate models have overestimated warming

CLAIM
climate models have overestimated the amount of global warming and failed to predict what climatologists call the warming ‘hiatus’

SOURCE: James Barrett, The Daily Wire

Published: 22 Sep 2017

VERDICT

Heartland Institute report’s claim that climate models are too sensitive to CO2 does not reflect evidence

CLAIM
[climate models] systematically over-estimate the sensitivity of climate to carbon dioxide ... and modelers exclude forcings and feedbacks that run counter to their mission

SOURCE: Craig Idso, Robert Carter, S. Fred Singer, Heartland Institute

Published: 23 May 2017

VERDICT