Climate change scientists underestimate the average American. Despite years of schooling and a PhD, they expect Americans to believe every claim or “finding” they release, even if their claim contradicts their previously published one.
Every American has heard the phrase, “Science is always changing,” at least once in school– but scientists can only use that excuse so many times.
In the newest climate change update, scientists claim rising temperatures are “making days longer” – 1.3 milliseconds per century longer, to be exact.
A recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences makes new claims that the “melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets” is causing the Earth to “fatten” and “slow its rotation,” CBS reported.
According to CBS, research from the PNAS used both “observations and reconstructions” to track the change of mass at Earth’s surface since 1900. The research found that in the 20th century, between “0.3 milliseconds per century and 1 millisecond per century” were added to the length of the day because of the “increase in climate; however, since 2000, the number has quickened to “1.3 milliseconds per century.”
Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich, a research university in Switzerland, told Britain's Guardian newspaper that longer days are a problem because they disrupt a “number of technologies humans rely on,” such as the “internet, communications, and financial transactions.” Longer days disrupt those things because they depend on "precise timekeeping." GPS navigation, satellites, spacecraft, and many more depend on precise timing and risk disruption.
While the recent research sounds very concerning, who is to say it isn’t like another Greta Thunberg tweet: false.
Just seven years ago, scientists claimed “global warming” could cause days to shorten in the “next two centuries”, LiveScience reported.
Climate Change means longer days.
— 𝔻𝕒𝕨𝕟𝕋𝕁𝟡𝟘™ 🇵🇭💖🇨🇦 Climate of Dawn (@DawnTJ90) January 28, 2022
Global Warming means shorter days.
'cuz science....
😎 pic.twitter.com/lPivuzTizp
Jochem Maratzke of the Max Planck Institute in Germany claimed the ocean water was getting warmer as the climate warmed. LiveScience reported that warmer ocean water causes the ocean to “expand,” resulting in rising sea levels, changes in the ocean’s circulation, and “more pressure” on some areas of the ocean floor.
The different pressures on the ocean floor “redistribute” the ocean’s water, pushing some water to “shallower coastal shelf areas” and “primarily toward” the North Pole. The ocean water’s change in distribution would shift the ocean's mass toward the North Pole–Earth's axis of rotation– causing the Earth to spin faster, shortening the length of the day “by about 0.12 milliseconds” by 2200, according to LiveScience.
The article from LiveScience also claimed “global warming” could cause the days to get longer; however, unlike current claims stating it is by the “melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets,” previous scientists claimed it was by “stronger winds” cause the Earth to slow down and spin slower, lengthening the day.
So, is it absurd to second-guess a claim made on climate change? Some would argue it is naive to believe something on the Internet without properly fact-checking it, regardless of whether it credits scientists.
Americans can all agree that the idea of rising temperatures causing catastrophic shifts to the planet is a serious problem– whether or not it is true is a different question. That is why some Americans are slow to concede when scientists and activists make claims about climate change such as the days are getting longer.