Birkel speaks to USA Today to fact check article about global cooling
Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist and assistant professor with a joint appointment in University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, spoke to USA Today to fact check an article that falsely claims the sun is causing global cooling. Birkel explained that cold events can occur even on a warming planet. Climate “variability can produce weather patterns that may bring cooler than normal temperatures to some locations for some period of time. … Meanwhile, the global temperature is still warmer than in decades past,” Birkel told USA Today in an email.