RealClimate on The Wall Street Journal vs. The Scientific Consensus

RealClimate is the kind of blog that you need Atom or RSS feeds to keep track of. Sometimes they post regularly, sometimes infrequently. And you always want to listen to what they have to say. Here they've posted a long rebuttal to a WSJ editorial, The Wall Street Journal vs. The Scientific Consensus

We are disappointed that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has chosen to yet again distort the science behind human-caused climate change and global warming in their recent editorial 'Kyoto By Degrees' (6/21/05) (subscription required).

Last week, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and 10 other leading world bodies expressed the consensus view(pdf) that 'there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring' and that 'It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities'. And just last week, USA Today editorialized that 'not only is the science in, it is also overwhelming'.

It is puzzling then that the WSJ editors could claim that 'the scientific case....looks weaker all the time'.

While we resist commenting on policy matters (e.g. the relative merits of the Kyoto Protocol or the various bills before the US Senate), we will staunchly defend the science against distortions and misrepresentations, be they intentional or not. In this spirit, we respond here to the scientifically inaccurate or incorrect assertions made in the editorial.