Snow extent in the northern hemisphere was recently reported to be at a 56-year high. Climate denialists have highlighted this fact as evidence against anthropogenic global warming. This is an example of which denialist strategy? The Misleading Use of Cherry-Picking: A Denialist Strategy to Discredit Climate Change

The Misleading Use of Cherry-Picking: A Denialist Strategy to Discredit Climate Change

                                                                                                                           Climate denialists have a long history of attempting to discredit the overwhelming scientific evidence that human activities are causing global warming. A recent example of this strategy is the widespread use of cherry-picking to distort the truth about the climate crisis. In particular, denialists have highlighted the reported 56-year high of snow extent in the northern hemisphere as evidence against anthropogenic global warming. This is a classic example of cherry-picking, an informal logical fallacy that involves taking one piece of evidence out of context and using it to misrepresent the overall picture (Kidd & Pfeifer, 2019). In this instance, denialists choose to focus on the specific finding that snow extent is at a 56-year high. This fact is accurate and could be taken as evidence that global warming is not occurring. However, this ignores the larger, more comprehensive picture: that global temperatures are rising, sea levels are increasing, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe (IPCC, 2019). By carefully selecting a single data point and failing to consider the full range of evidence, Climate denialists are able to create a false narrative about climate change. Cont…