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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
Dr. Gunther isn't impressed by the evidentiary standards in Abundance. But her own book, "The Language of Climate Politics" is full of incredibly blatant lies and statistical misrepresentations. Last year George Morrison at Breakthrough wrote about a few of them. 🧵
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)
@DoctorVive
Devastating review of "Abundance" (the book) in @nybooks. I mean, whew! 1/2
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
She claimed that agricultural yields per acre declined 21% since 1961. Anyone who has ever contemplated agriculture at all should realize instantly that can't be. Indeed, she misread a study that compared the rate of growth to the rate of growth if we hadn't had climate change.
Text discussing a claim by scientists at Cornell University about global food production between 1961 and 2021. A reference to Ariel Ortiz-Bobea et al.'s paper on anthropogenic climate change and global agricultural productivity. Graphs from Our World in Data showing agricultural yield increases since 1961.
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
Global agricultural yields are 200% to 300% higher than they were in 1961. No serious or credible person could read, let alone write, the sentence 'the amount of food produced per acre of land has declined 21 percent globally between 1961 and 2021."
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
Follow her chain of citations and what do you find? One analysis of the electricity mix in various countries, and the effects of increased electricity demand, estimated some stuff to do with radiation. From nuclear power. A thing which can cause radiation, unlike plants.
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
She goes on to claim that 3 degrees Celsius of global heating would mean that in Maine, going outside in the summer would put you at immediate risk of death.
Text on a white background discussing climate change, stating "Claim 7. '3°C of global heating would likely mean that for around three months of the year, the entire East Coast all the way to Maine, the Midwest to the Great Plains... would be so hot that being outdoors would put you at risk of death... And that\'s just the background heat.' (Guenther, pg. 37)".
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
You might be thinking to yourself that there are places much more than 3 degrees Celsius warmer than Maine where people go outside in the summer without risk of immediate death. You would be correct.
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
When you actually follow the chain of citations, again, this is a study which finds that the number of days above a threshold for heat and humidity conditions that 'pose a risk to human health'. Also Maine will experience 1-10 such days per year.
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David Watson 🥑
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Seqaeon
@Seqaeon
6 inaccurate claims in a non-fiction of almost 300 pages is the shoddiest work you have seen? seems a bit much, youd probably see as much or more in most non fiction books even textbooks sometimes!
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Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
the eight claims highlighted in the article are very very far from being all of the falsehoods in the book. but also, no, these are falsehoods way more egregious than you'd find in any textbook.
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