Fake news tries to blame human-caused global warming on El Niño

A man reading a copy of the Oxford Dictionary
of English. “Post-truth” has been named as
 Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year after a
 spike in its use around the Brexit vote and
 Donald Trump’s presidential bid. The phrase
has long applied to climate denial as well.
 

Human carbon pollution is heating the Earth incredibly fast. On top of that long-term human-caused global warming trend, there are fluctuations caused by various natural factors. One of these is the El Niño/La Niña cycle. The combination of human-caused warming and a strong El Niño event are on the verge of causing an unprecedented three consecutive record-breaking hot years.

Simply put, without global warming we would not be seeing record-breaking heat year after year. In fact, 2014 broke the temperature record without an El Niño assist, and then El Niño helped push 2015 over 2014, and 2016 over 2015.

Sadly, we live in a post-truth world dominated by fake news in which people increasingly seek information that confirms their ideological beliefs, rather than information that’s factually accurate from reliable sources. Because people have become incredibly polarized on the subject of climate change, those with a conservative worldview who prefer maintaining the status quo to the steps we need to take to prevent a climate catastrophe often seek out climate science-denying stories.

Read Dana Nuccitelli’s story on The Guardian - “Fake news tries to blame human-caused global warming on El Niño.”