The Trojan Horse Bringing Implausible Scenarios Back Into Climate Science
New climate models could revive extreme warming projections long after they were deemed implausible.
by Roger Pielke Jr. September 24, 2026, 11:06 AM in Extreme Weather, News and Opinion, Politics,
Yesterday’s New York Times featured an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells and Zeke Hausfather — a journalist and a climate scientist, respectively — both well known for their commitment to climate advocacy. [some emphasis, links added]
Normally, yet another apocalyptic op-ed would not be worth commenting on, as they are a dime a dozen.
However, yesterday’s op-ed shows how the new CMIP7 climate scenarios — discussed in detail here at THB — can smuggle the implausibly extreme, retired RCP8.5 back into climate science and policy discussions.
According to Hausfather, an IPCC AR7 lead author, the IPCC AR7 will adopt this strategy as well.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/trojan-horse-implausible-climate-scenarios-science/
