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+--- Thread: Article The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? (/thread-18615.html)
The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - C C - Aug 20, 2025
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-truth-about-climate-change-lies-middle-steve-koonin
INTRO: Theoretical physicist Steven Koonin went from working on climate and energy issues as a Department of Energy undersecretary under President Barack Obama to co-author of last month’s report to the agency’s current chief that concluded the threat from greenhouse gas emissions has been exaggerated.
What changed?
Koonin, 73, told me that he started to dig more deeply into climate science in 2014—and discovered that it had a “dirty underbelly.” “I started paying attention to the representation of climate science in the media and political discussions, and realized that things were just not being told straight,” he said. (If you are interested in Koonin’s take on what caused the Los Angeles fires earlier this year and what they portend, read this article by my Free Press colleague Emily Yoffe.)
The 151-page report by the Climate Working Group signals a 180-degree shift from the Biden administration’s climate focus, opening the aperture to theories and findings that might send Greta Thunberg into a coma. For example, the report said that the growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “has the important positive effect of promoting plant growth,” that much of the debate about the consequences of ocean acidification “has been one-sided and exaggerated,” and that U.S. corn yields haven’t been hurt by rising temperatures, as many studies have claimed.
Last week, two environmental groups sued the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency over the report, alleging that Koonin and his four co-authors sought to “manufacture” a reason to deny the root causes of global warming and were recruited in secret.
So is climate change real? And what will the conversations and scientific research about climate science look like by the time President Donald Trump leaves the White House? Here are some of Koonin’s answers, lightly edited for clarity... (MORE - details)
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - confused2 - Aug 21, 2025
Quote:U.S. corn yields haven’t been hurt by rising temperatures, as many studies have claimed.
True.... but...
From another paper..
Quote:Recent research also highlights a north and westward spatial shift in the Corn Belt (Hart and Lindberg 2014; Laingen 2017, Auch et al 2018) such that the geographic mean of the Corn Belt has shifted over 200 km northwest since the 1950s (Laingen 2017).
More: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9333
In a paper about the effects of climate change (the OP) does failing to mention that the corn belt has 'moved' amount to deliberate deception?
The paper is in Junk Science slot .. would Syne have put it there?
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - Syne - Aug 21, 2025
Did the other studies claim the corn belt had moved or that the yields had decreased?
No deception in countering the actual claim made.
Just a bit of intellectual honesty would have answered that question.
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - confused2 - Aug 21, 2025
FYI
rhetorical question
noun
a question asked to make a point rather than to get an answer.
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - Syne - Aug 22, 2025
Intellectual dishonesty - the act of being deceptive or insincere in one's thinking, communication, or actions, particularly when engaging with ideas or arguments.
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - confused2 - Aug 22, 2025
There we go, pointing fingers and casting aspersions! As if I could ever be guilty of such mischief. I laugh at your insinuations.
RE: The truth about climate change ‘lies somewhere in the middle’? - Syne - Aug 22, 2025
Of course you do, you're intellectually dishonest.