Hyperbole and Hyperbole Police

November 18th, 2004

Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.

A particularly interesting example of hyperbole on the climate issue was sent in by John Fleck (Thanks!). The incident is interesting no so much because of the hyperbole itself, but because scientists, including some closely affiliated with the IPCC, were willing to take a public stand on the hyperbolic statements.

Here is an excerpt from the New Zealand Herald article that discussed the incident:

“”The winner of one of New Zealand’s top science medals, Professor Peter Barrett, has backed off a controversial claim that humanity faces extinction within 100 years because of global warming.

Dr Barrett, who was presented with the Royal Society’s Marsden Medal in Christchurch last night, gave the Christchurch Press notes for his acceptance speech in which he planned to say: “If we continue our present growth path we are facing extinction – not in millions of years, or even millennia, but by the end of this century.”

After a storm of criticism, he changed the word “extinction” in his speech last night to “the end of civilisation as we know it”.

Dr Barrett, 64, the director of Victoria University’s Antarctic Research Centre, has used ancient air particles trapped in Antarctic ice to show changes in carbon dioxide are linked with changes in the polar ice sheets and the Earth’s climate. His work has been widely cited in the world’s scientific journals.

But his own colleagues were embarrassed yesterday after his initial speech notes were reported. “I certainly wouldn’t be using that language,” said Dr Jim Salinger, the lead author for the Australia and New Zealand chapter of the next global assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”

Good for Jim Salinger and good for the IPCC.

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