The guest commentary by Jed Dukett on Jan. 11 (“Ignoring the bias in climate change science”) claiming bias in climate change science is deeply flawed and does a disservice to your readers. His assertions spread disinformation about climate science and the scientists working in this field. Unfortunately, Dukett does not cite his sources so it is not clear where these errors come from.

Fundamental misunderstandings of the roles of carbon dioxide, CO2 and sulfur dioxide, SO2, in the earth’s atmosphere are found throughout the article. SO2, a gas, does not “reflect incoming sunlight to space, causing cooling.” Any cooling comes from SO4, sulfate particles that form from SO2 and remain in the atmosphere for short periods of time, weeks at most, either settling to the surface or getting scrubbed out by rain.

Large volcanic eruptions like Mount Pinatubo may affect global climate when the force of eruption lofts particles high into the stratosphere, where the lack of convection and precipitation allows the particles to remain in the atmosphere for several years. However, it is nonsense to compare the climatic effects of SO4 derived from pollution to volcanic sources. Unlike CO2, which remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years or more, pollution sourced SO4’s short lifetime means it does not affect global climate and only affects regions where emissions are large and continuous.

The claim that “The extent of the Arctic summer sea-ice has shown no trend since the mid-2000s” is particularly egregious. In fact, it has declined dramatically. While many climate parameters, such as global average temperature, are difficult to quantify, Arctic sea-ice extent is straightforward to determine using the contrast between dark ocean water and the bright reflection from sea-ice as seen in satellite imagery. The last 18 years, from 2007 to 2024, have had the lowest sea-ice extents in the satellite record, which began in 1978. And last month, December 2024, saw the least amount of sea-ice for any December over the 46 year satellite record.

Beyond the factual errors, the commentary devolves into diatribes against scientists, claiming that “the elite climate ruling class,” use “indoctrination of extreme weather events placed upon the people as a perversion of the scientific method.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

As a polar climate scientist with over 20 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, I have seen firsthand the effects of climate change on the polar regions. In Greenland never before observed melting in the interior is now taking place with regularity, in Svalbard locals have lost access to their neighbors across the fiord as the sea-ice no longer sets up in winter and on Alaska’s north slope Inupiat whalers find reaching the ice edge in spring a much riskier endeavor.

The disruption to polar regions is a harbinger of climate change at all latitudes. Last year (2024) has been confirmed as the warmest year on record by the World Meteorological Organization. Each of the last 10 years was one of the 10 warmest years on record. Rather than downplaying the strong evidence of global warming primarily caused by CO2 from burning fossil fuels, we must take seriously the science of our changing climate and do what we can to influence policy makers so that the next generation has tools to combat historically unprecedented changes to our environment.

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Richard Brandt is a research meteorologist at the University of Washington Seattle. He lives in Vermontville.

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Sources:

1. Myhre, G., Myhre, C. E.L., Samset, B. H. & Storelvmo, T. (2013) Aerosols and their Relation to Global Climate and Climate Sensitivity. Nature Education Knowledge 4(5):7

2. Bnd, N., Krol, M., van Noije, T., van Weele, M., Williams, J. E., Sager, P. L., Niemeier, U., Thomason, L., and Rckmann, T.(2015) The effect of stratospheric sulfur from Mount Pinatubo on tropospheric oxidizing capacity and methane, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 120, 1202-1220.

3. Brandt, R. E., Warren, S. G., Worby, A. P. & Grenfell, T. C. (2005) Surface albedo of the Antarctic sea ice zone. J. Clim. 18, 3606-3622 (2005).

4. https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today

5. https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today/analyses/ringing-new-year-warm-arctic#anchor-the-year-in-review

6. https://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level