The Washington Post – Science Feedback

Reviews of articles from: The Washington Post

ARTICLE REVIEWS

Washington Post article accurately discusses warm Arctic weather event

in The Washington Post, by Jason Samenow

“This article accurately describes the Arctic warming event and associated surprise by scientists, includes multiple explanations for possible causes, and does not overstate any connections to climate change, pointing out that more data is needed to know if these above-freezing events will be a new Arctic normal.”

— 14 Jan 2019

Washington Post accurately describes ocean warming study (which has since been corrected)

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis

“The Washington Post article accurately reports the results and links to other topics using reliable sources. Quotations from Pieter Tans and Paul Durack add important caveats showing that this is strong new evidence but not the final say. This caution is vital for readers to interpret the findings.”

— 03 Nov 2018

Washington Post story puts recent weather extremes in accurate climate change context

in The Washington Post, by Joel Achenbach, Angela Fritz

“This article accurately describes the broader climate context of recent heat extremes throughout the Northern Hemisphere. There are a couple spots where specific claims are somewhat stronger than justified by the existing scientific evidence, but in general the piece gives an accurate impression regarding the role of climate change and recent advances in extreme event attribution science.”

— 31 Jul 2018

Washington Post article accurately describes latest estimate of accelerating Antarctic ice loss

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“The article presents the results of the study accurately, and uses multiple comments from scientists both involved and not-involved in the study to highlight the key findings. Some of the explanations are simplified, and there is a slight attempt at the end to downplay the results by suggesting scientists can’t predict the future. It is correct that the study presented is not making predictions, rather documenting past changes, but the positive trend is what we would expect based on the longer record of change we have for glaciers and ice caps.”

— 15 Jun 2018

Washington Post accurately covers permafrost study, albeit under a somewhat sensational headline

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

The article accurately described a study indicating that more of the carbon released from thawing permafrost will be released as methane and provided context on its overall implications by quoting comments from two other researchers. The article’s headline, however, may mislead readers through the use of the sensational phrase “the Arctic’s carbon bomb”, which calls to mind a catastrophic, explosive release of greenhouse gas.

— 22 Mar 2018

Analysis of “One of the most troubling ideas about climate change just found new evidence in its favor”

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“Overall, this piece accurately describes the findings of a new research paper by Mann et al on linkages between rapid Arctic warming and extreme weather at Earth’s more temperate latitudes. While there are a couple of statements that are overly confident given available evidence in the peer-reviewed literature, the author generally does an excellent job placing this new work into the broader context of related studies over the past decade.”

— 29 Mar 2017

Analysis of “Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth’s oceans linked to a warming climate”

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“Changes in ocean chemistry, temperature, and circulation have significant consequences for marine life and can initiate positive feedbacks to accelerate ocean and atmosphere warming. This article is refreshing in that the author presents the results and significance of global ocean oxygen loss accurately and very clearly for non-expert audiences.”

— 19 Feb 2017

Analysis of “U.S. scientists officially declare 2016 the hottest year on record. That makes three in a row.”

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“The article accurately conveys the US agencies’ declaration of 2016 as the hottest year on record. It provides some good background material on why the agencies’ numbers differ slightly (treatment of the Arctic) and the contributing roles of El Niño and man-made global warming.”

— 19 Jan 2017

Analysis of “What science can tell us about the links between global warming and massive heat waves”

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“This is a well-written article that provides a good overall discussion around the connection between climate change and the ongoing US heat wave. In the absence of a specific event attribution study the role of climate change in this event can’t be quantified, but Chris Mooney provides an insightful overview of the role of climate change in heat events generally.”

— 26 Jul 2016

Analysis of “Thanks to climate change, the Arctic is turning green”

in The Washington Post, by Chris Mooney

“The article reports about recent evidence that terrestrial ecosystems are ‘greening’ in response to human activities, principally the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration. The author presents this ‘greening’ as a new finding while annual global carbon budgets have reported that about 25% of the fossil-fuel emissions have been taken up by the biosphere since the 1960s. Nothing is fundamentally wrong in the article but it is organized in a somewhat misleading way”

— 04 Jul 2016