by Roger Pielke Jr., PhD, climate researcher, political scientist (bio below)

Apr 29, 2026

You may be able to read Dr. Pielke’s original post here: https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/rcp85-is-officially-dead

This is an introduction to a wonkish post by Dr. Pielke Jr which is loaded with technical terminology. Basically, the worst case, fear-based, climate change/global warming models used by proponents (e.g., UN IPCC, etc) for a couple of decades are being rescinded and revised by their proponents because they did not work, i.e., they were unable to reliably demonstrate results that were close to the measured climate and temperatures. Thousands of scientific papers, possibly hundreds of thousands of news media reports, and many billions of dollars in unnecessary cost to the public have been based directly or indirectly on these erroneous climate models.

Also, though not discussed here, many of those climate change/global warming/net zero proponents, for example recently Al Gore, more recently argue or mention that we may be entering a cooling phase as has long been predicted by a small group of scientists, for example Professor Valentina Zharkova at Northumbria University in the UK, who hold that Earth’s climate is controlled by the Sun and orbital alignments of the Sun and planets, not by a trivial amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Here is Dr. Pielke Jr.’s introduction:

“The international committee responsible for the official scenarios that feed into climate modeling that are the basis for most projective climate research and the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the next generation of climate scenarios.”

“Big news: The new framework has eliminated the most extreme scenarios that have dominated climate research over much of the past several decades — specifically, RCP8.5, SSP5-8.5, and SSP3-7.0. This is an absolutely huge development in climate science which will have lasting impacts across research and policy.”

“The future is not what it used to be.”

“Today’s post commends the researchers who have brought climate scenarios more in line with current understandings, but also raises some significant continuing issues with the scenarios.”

https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/rcp85-is-officially-dead

The following is a summary bio of Dr. Pielke by Grok:

Dr. Roger A. Pielke Jr. (born November 2, 1968) is an American political scientist specializing in science and technology policy, the governance of science, environment-society interactions, energy and climate policy, innovation, and sports governance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_A._Pielke_Jr.

Education
B.A. in mathematics (1990), M.A. in public policy (1992), and Ph.D. in political science (1994), all from the University of Colorado Boulder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_A._Pielke_Jr.

Career:

• From 1993 to 2001, he worked as a staff scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/about_us/meet_us/roger_pielke/
• In 2001, he joined the University of Colorado Boulder faculty, where he served as a professor in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). He founded and directed the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (2001–2020/2024) and later directed the Sports Governance Center. https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/about-roger-pielke
• He became Professor Emeritus at CU Boulder in 2024–2025. https://www.aei.org/profile/roger-pielke-jr/
• He is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), focusing on science and technology policy, the politicization of science, government science advice, energy, and climate. He also holds affiliations as a distinguished fellow at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan; research associate at Risk Frontiers (Australia); and honorary professor at University College London. https://www.aei.org/profile/roger-pielke-jr/

Other Roles and Recognition:

Pielke has advised U.S. Congress on related issues, served in various academic leadership roles, and held visiting positions at institutions including the University of Oxford and University of Oslo. He writes the Substack newsletter The Honest Broker and has authored books such as The Climate Fix.
Pielke is widely respected for his emphasis on evidence-based policy and critiques of the politicization of science, especially around climate and extreme weather. https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/about-roger-pielke

Awards:

His honors include the Eduard Brückner Prize (2006) for interdisciplinary climate research, an honorary doctorate from Linköping University (2012), the Geological Society of America’s Public Service Award, and membership in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2024). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_A._Pielke_Jr.

Pielke is known for his work emphasizing evidence-based policy, critiques of the politicization of science (particularly around climate and extreme weather), and advocacy for pragmatic approaches to decarbonization and disaster resilience. He is the son of meteorologist Roger A. Pielke Sr.