George Will lies about global warming

George, how could you do it? You've been one of the few conservative columnists I could read without wondering, "What bag of untruth was that statement dragged out of?"

Yet now Will has joined the Reality Is What We Say It Is crowd, having spouted blatant lies about global warming in today's column, "Dark Green Doomsayers."

Now, lies is a strong word. It fits in this case, though -- better than mistaken, misleading, or such.

One reason: George Will is a national columnist with considerable fact-checking resources. And his piece is just ten paragraphs long. There's no excuse not to get important facts right in such a brief bit of writing.

Countering the claim that global warming is leading to a decrease in sea ice, Will said:

According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979.

Response of the Arctic Climate Research Center: Huh?

We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined.

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.

Yes, it is. And that George Will would write a column founded on lies. Here's another one: the assertion that in the 1970s scientists were confidently predicting global cooling rather than warming.

It took me less than 30 seconds of Googling to debunk this myth. But I guess Will couldn't spend that much time on the truth.

Wikipedia:
"Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis never had significant scientific support, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles, and a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s."

USA Today:
"The supposed 'global cooling' consensus among scientists in the 1970s — frequently offered by global-warming skeptics as proof that climatologists can't make up their minds — is a myth, according to a survey of the scientific literature of the era."

New Scientist:
"A survey of the scientific literature has found that between 1965 and 1979, 44 scientific papers predicted warming, 20 were neutral and just 7 predicted cooling. So while predictions of cooling got more media attention, the majority of scientists were predicting warming even then."

Here's some additional nails that have been pounded into George Will's credibility coffin. From now on I'll be looking at his column with a lot more skepticism.

"George F. Will Takes on Science, Loses Credibility"
"Will Omitted Key Context in Ice Age Quote"
"Where There's a (George) Will There's A Way ... To Deny Global Warming"