Scientists stunned by climate denialism from Joe Rogan podcast guest
By Angela Dewan, CNN
(CNN) -- As podcaster Joe Rogan faces condemnation from medical scientists for spreading misinformation about vaccines and Covid-19, another interview by the controversial host this week has become the subject of mockery -- this time among climate scientists.
Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson appeared on "The Joe Rogan Experience" on Monday, making false and generalized claims that the modeling scientists use to project climate change and its impacts are flawed.
In waffling remarks, Peterson said that "there's no such thing as climate, right?" He then went on to mock "climate types," who he said typically suggest that "climate is about everything."
"But your models aren't based on everything. Your models are based on a set number of variables. So that means you've reduced the variables -- which are everything -- to that set. But how did you decide which set of variables to include in the equation if it's about everything?"
Rogan did little to challenge the unsubstantiated comments.
Peterson's remarks show a general misunderstanding of how scientific modeling works. Scientists use models, or simulations, to project particular aspects of climate change, such as the rise in global temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and the likelihood of drought.
Climate scientists ridiculed Peterson on on social media.
"Guys, for the love of everything holy, please, please, have somebody on who knows what the heck a climate model is!!!" said NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt on Twitter.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, tweeted graph showing how accurate scientists' projections of global warming have been over several decades.
"For what it's worth, we have been projecting future warming since the first climate models in the late 1960s/early 1970s. We can look back to see how well they have performed. It turns out our models generally did a good job," he wrote.
The backlash comes as musician Neil Young told audio streaming giant Spotify he no longer wanted his music to be featured on on the service because of Rogan's frequent false claims around Covid-19 and vaccines.
Spotify announced on Wednesday it would no longer stream the music of Neil Young, according to a Washington Post report.
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