New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

December 2, 2016

2 min read

Google Logo Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm

The 9 Best Reactions to the House Science Committee’s Breitbart Tweet

Experts condemn lawmakers’ decision to promote fallacious article from conservative news site

By Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith.

Ryan J. Reilly Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

On Thursday the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, run by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, retweeted a Breitbart News story that dismissed climate change as “a scare” manufactured by “alarmists”. An overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that the phenomenon is real and primarily the result of human activities, and many of them took to social media to express their dismay (to put it mildly) that the committee, which oversees government offices such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admiration, would promote such a misguided article. Here are a few of the best reactions:

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe