Climate change exaggeration

Climate change exaggeration also known as climate change alarmism and global warming exaggeration refers to the distortion of climate change beyond the available evidence in order to bolster the case for action to reduce global warming. As one example of such "exaggeration," a Reuters article stated, "Public conviction of <b>global warming</b>'s risks may have been undermined by an error in a U.N. panel report <b>exaggerating</b> the pace of melt of Himalayan glaciers..."
Examples
Predicted time of melting of Himalayan glaciers
In a 2007 report, the IPCC said that Himalayan glaciers could be gone by 2035. In 2010, Murari Lal, the coordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, admitted that there was no solid data to support that claim.
Predicted rise in sea level
A 2008 report in Science said that predictions of sea level rising by 20 feet or more by the end of the 21st century were inaccurate, and that a rise of much more than six feet was a near physical impossibility.
In a 2007 report, the IPCC stated that 55% of the Netherlands was below sea level. In 2010, it was revealed that the actual percentage was 26%.
Predicted acceleration of global warming
The claims made during the 1990s that the rate of global warming was accelerating turned out to be false during the following decade.
Possible effects on credibility of environmental movement
Matthew Nisbet, a professor of communications at American University, said that climate change exaggeration could actually hurt the environmental movement.
The Times reported that climate change exaggeration "can easily be rebutted by critics of global warming science to cast doubt on the whole field." Sir David King, director of the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, stated, "When people overstate happenings that aren’t necessarily climate change-related, or set up as almost certainties things that are difficult to establish scientifically, it distracts from the science we do understand. The danger is they can be accused of scaremongering." Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, stated, "It isn’t helpful to anybody to exaggerate the situation. It’s scary enough as it is."
An article about climate change exaggeration in Der Spiegel stated, "In the long term, the supposedly useful dramatizations achieve exactly the opposite of what they are intended to achieve."
The New York Times reported that climate change exaggeration "bolstered arguments from climate skeptics that fears of global warming are overblown."
A Reuters article stated, "Public conviction of global warming's risks may have been undermined by an error in a U.N. panel report exaggerating the pace of melt of Himalayan glaciers..."
Public opinion
A March 2009 Gallup poll showed that 41% of Americans believed that climate change was being exaggerated in the news.

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