Rebecca Leber notes how indisputable facts presented in a recent climate change talk by atmospheric scientist Norman Loeb have been mangled by climate deniers.  

Loeb “noted that the rise in surface temperatures has slowed considerably since 2000. This doesn’t contradict the theory of global warming, he explained. Land temperature regularly varies, and much of the warming in the last decade is happening unseen in the ocean.”  

The “
Washington Times
ran a short story on the talk. It said that a prominent NASA scientist had admitted global warming is on ‘hiatus.’ As the writer explained, ‘The nation’s space agency [has] noticed an inconvenient cooling on the planet lately.’”  

“It was pretty much the opposite of what Loeb was trying to say. But it’s not an isolated incident. Conservatives love to cite the relative stability of global surface temperatures for the last 15 years as proof that climate change is a hoax. And they frequently twist the words of scientists to do it. I read or hear versions of this argument all the time—from outlets like Forbes, National Review, and Fox News. Sometimes the conservatives even talk about ‘global cooling,’ joking that maybe we should be more worried about that, instead.”