by Vijay Jayaraj

Hollywood actor Rainn Wilson, famous for his role in of one of my favorite sitcoms, “The Office,” has changed his Instagram profile name to ‘Rainnfall heat wave extreme winter Wilson,’ in what he calls a move to make people more aware of the dangers of climate change. He could have used instead the word “weather.”

He has even suggested other actors do the same, offering names like Leonardo Di-Polar Ice Caprio Are Melting, Cardi The Arctic B Melting, Amy Poehler Bears Are Endangered, and Harrison Why Not Drive An Electric Ford.

It is sad that celebrities are intentionally promoting a false narrative or are being misled about climate by a few elite groups of politically driven pseudoscience organizations and the mainstream media. Real-world data indicate no dangerous or unprecedented warming. There even has been a pause in the warming rate during short periods in the last two decades.

The past seven years have been very interesting. In 2016, El Nino, which is a weather phenomenon emanating from the Pacific Ocean, increased global temperatures. However, below-average temperatures were frequent every year, since then, contradicting the current climate narrative that summers are longer and hotter and winters are shorter.

Despite a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as power plants, agriculture and combustion engines, various regions have had a pause in warming. This hiatus has been marked by instances of very heavy snow accumulation and an increase in the levels of sea ice in the Arctic.

The gold standard of satellite temperature data at the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH), show that the Arctic has in fact been cooling (or at least displaying an observable pause in warming) since 2015. In the graph below, one can easily comprehend the lack of warming and the spike in temperatures during the El Niño year. 

Data source: University of Alabama, Huntsville. https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/v6.0/tlt/uahncdc_lt_6.0.txt

The MSM consistently fails to report on the historically high ice mass levels in the Arctic region. The Greenland ice sheet is one of the key subjects of discussion in the global debate on climate change. For decades, the MSM claimed that Arctic Sea ice, including Greenland’s, could disappear as a result of increasing temperatures.

However, anxiety about Greenland’s ice mass is ill-founded. Evidence shows that Greenland’s ice is not in a dramatic decline. In fact, the Greenland Surface Mass Balance (SMB) – an index used to measure sea-ice level – is at one of its highest levels in recorded history.

Image: Greenland Accumulated Surface Mass Balance (SMB) in Gigatons. Current levels much higher than the 1981-2010 mean and the previous two years.  Source: Polar Portal by The Danish Arctic research institutions. http://polarportal.dk/en/greenland/surface-conditions/

The entire Northern hemisphere has been receiving high amounts of snow. According to NASA/Rutgers’ latest data, the Northern Hemisphere’s snow cover is above the 56-year mean (1967-2022). At one point in November, it reached an all-time high.

Weekly Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent for the 2023 snow year (purple) higher than the 56-year (October 1966–July 2022) mean. Courtesy of the Rutgers Global Snow Lab. Source: https://globalcryospherewatch.org/state_of_cryo/snow/

Sometimes, it is easier to understand weather data than a mind unwilling to accept a reality that challenges an apocalyptic narrative. As for the celebrities who exhibit such recalcitrance, we would borrow a name from a Disney character: Goofy.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, UK and resides in India.