The decision to back away from a worst-case outlook raises questions about whether some risks have been overstated.
... the new paper has raised questions about whether some of the risks of climate change have been poorly communicated or overstated in years past .
In this latest update, the researchers abandoned a dire — and often criticized — high-emissions scenario known as RCP8.5 that has been prominently cited in thousands of climate studies over the past decade. The authors said the scenario was now “implausible” given recent energy trends.
studies have found that under RCP8.5, large swaths of the planet might regularly experience days hotter than the human body can tolerate.
...many policymakers and researchers continued to emphasize the high-emissions scenario for years afterward, said Roger Pielke, Jr., a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a leading critic of the use of RCP8.5.
We’ve known for a decade that this scenario is implausible, and that the community got off on a bad track very early on when this scenario set was created,” Dr. Pielke said.
read more from the far left NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/...0487&user_id=2eb9bc14837868cabdba00860795c966
... the new paper has raised questions about whether some of the risks of climate change have been poorly communicated or overstated in years past .
In this latest update, the researchers abandoned a dire — and often criticized — high-emissions scenario known as RCP8.5 that has been prominently cited in thousands of climate studies over the past decade. The authors said the scenario was now “implausible” given recent energy trends.
studies have found that under RCP8.5, large swaths of the planet might regularly experience days hotter than the human body can tolerate.
...many policymakers and researchers continued to emphasize the high-emissions scenario for years afterward, said Roger Pielke, Jr., a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a leading critic of the use of RCP8.5.
We’ve known for a decade that this scenario is implausible, and that the community got off on a bad track very early on when this scenario set was created,” Dr. Pielke said.
read more from the far left NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/...0487&user_id=2eb9bc14837868cabdba00860795c966
