|
Climate Myth |
vs |
What the Science Says |
2 |
"It's the sun" |
In the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been going in opposite directions |
4 |
"There is no consensus" |
97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming. |
6 |
"Models are unreliable" |
Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean. |
8 |
"Animals and plants can adapt" |
Global warming will cause mass extinctions of species that cannot adapt on short time scales. |
10 |
"Antarctica is gaining ice" |
Satellites measure Antarctica losing land ice at an accelerating rate. |
12 |
"CO2 lags temperature" |
CO2 didn't initiate warming from past ice ages but it did amplify the warming. |
14 |
"We're heading into an ice age" |
Worry about global warming impacts in the next 100 years, not an ice age in over 10,000 years. |
16 |
"Hockey stick is broken" |
Recent studies agree that recent global temperatures are unprecedented in the last 1000 years. |
18 |
"Hurricanes aren't linked to global warming" |
There is increasing evidence that hurricanes are getting stronger due to global warming. |
20 |
"Glaciers are growing" |
Most glaciers are retreating, posing a serious problem for millions who rely on glaciers for water. |
22 |
"1934 - hottest year on record" |
1934 was one of the hottest years in the US, not globally. |
24 |
"Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming" |
Extreme weather events are being made more frequent and worse by global warming. |
26 |
"It's Urban Heat Island effect" |
Urban and rural regions show the same warming trend. |
28 |
"Mars is warming" |
Mars is not warming globally. |
30 |
"Increasing CO2 has little to no effect" |
The strong CO2 effect has been observed by many different measurements. |
32 |
"Climate scientists are in it for the money" |
Climate scientists could make far more money in other careers - most notably, working for the oil industry. |
34 |
"Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions" |
The natural cycle adds and removes CO2 to keep a balance; humans add extra CO2 without removing any. |
36 |
"Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas" |
Rising CO2 increases atmospheric water vapor, which makes global warming much worse. |
38 |
"CO2 limits will harm the economy" |
The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over. |
40 |
"Greenland was green" |
Other parts of the earth got colder when Greenland got warmer. |
42 |
"CO2 is not a pollutant" |
Through its impacts on the climate, CO2 presents a danger to public health and welfare, and thus qualifies as an air pollutant |
44 |
"There's no empirical evidence" |
There are multiple lines of direct observations that humans are causing global warming. |
46 |
"Arctic sea ice has recovered" |
Thick arctic sea ice is in rapid retreat. |
48 |
"We're coming out of the Little Ice Age" |
Scientists have determined that the factors which caused the Little Ice Age cooling are not currently causing global warming. |
50 |
"Global warming stopped in 1998, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2010, ????" |
Global temperature is still rising and 2010 was the hottest recorded. |
52 |
"It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low" |
Early 20th century warming is due to several causes, including rising CO2. |
54 |
"It's aerosols" |
Aerosols have been masking global warming, which would be worse otherwise. |
56 |
"It's a natural cycle" |
No known natural forcing fits the fingerprints of observed warming except anthropogenic greenhouse gases. |
58 |
"Mt. Kilimanjaro's ice loss is due to land use" |
Most glaciers are in rapid retreat worldwide, notwithstanding a few complicated cases. |
60 |
"There's no tropospheric hot spot" |
We see a clear "short-term hot spot" - there's various evidence for a "long-term hot spot". |
62 |
"2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory" |
The 2nd law of thermodynamics is consistent with the greenhouse effect which is directly observed. |
64 |
"IPCC were wrong about Himalayan glaciers" |
Glaciers are in rapid retreat worldwide, despite 1 error in 1 paragraph in a 1000 page IPCC report. |
66 |
"CO2 limits will hurt the poor" |
Those who contribute the least greenhouse gases will be most impacted by climate change. |
68 |
"The science isn't settled" |
That human CO2 is causing global warming is known with high certainty & confirmed by observations. |
70 |
"It's the ocean" |
The oceans are warming and moreover are becoming more acidic, threatening the food chain. |
72 |
"Corals are resilient to bleaching" |
Globally about 1% of coral is dying out each year. |
74 |
"CO2 effect is saturated" |
Direct measurements find that rising CO2 is trapping more heat. |
76 |
"CO2 is just a trace gas" |
Many substances are dangerous even in trace amounts; what really matters is the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. |
78 |
"It's methane" |
Methane plays a minor role in global warming but could get much worse if permafrost starts to melt. |
80 |
"CO2 measurements are suspect" |
CO2 levels are measured by hundreds of stations across the globe, all reporting the same trend. |
82 |
"Neptune is warming" |
And the sun is cooling. |
84 |
"Springs aren't advancing" |
Hundreds of flowers across the UK are flowering earlier now than any time in 250 years. |
86 |
"Scientists tried to 'hide the decline' in global temperature" |
The 'decline' refers to a decline in northern tree-rings, not global temperature, and is openly discussed in papers and the IPCC reports. |
88 |
"Record snowfall disproves global warming" |
Warming leads to increased evaporation and precipitation, which falls as increased snow in winter. |
90 |
"They changed the name from 'global warming' to 'climate change'" |
'Global warming' and 'climate change' mean different things and have both been used for decades. |
92 |
"CO2 is coming from the ocean" |
The ocean is absorbing massive amounts of CO2, and is becoming more acidic as a result. |
94 |
"Pluto is warming" |
And the sun has been recently cooling. |
96 |
"Peer review process was corrupted" |
An Independent Review concluded that CRU's actions were normal and didn't threaten the integrity of peer review. |
98 |
"Arctic was warmer in 1940" |
The actual data show high northern latitudes are warmer today than in 1940. |
100 |
"Southern sea ice is increasing" |
Antarctic sea ice has grown in recent decades despite the Southern Ocean warming at the same time. |
102 |
"Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate" |
Humans are small but powerful, and human CO2 emissions are causing global warming. |
104 |
"Lindzen and Choi find low climate sensitivity" |
Lindzen and Choi’s paper is viewed as unacceptably flawed by other climate scientists. |
106 |
"Infrared Iris will reduce global warming" |
The iris hypothesis has not withstood the test of time - subsequent research has found that if it exists, the effect is much smaller than originally hypothesized, and may even slightly amplify rather than reducing global warming. |
108 |
"It's too hard" |
Scientific studies have determined that current technology is sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid dangerous climate change. |
110 |
"It's albedo" |
Albedo change in the Arctic, due to receding ice, is increasing global warming. |
112 |
"It's soot" |
Soot stays in the atmosphere for days to weeks; carbon dioxide causes warming for centuries. |
114 |
"Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong" |
Jim Hansen had several possible scenarios; his mid-level scenario B was right. |
116 |
"Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected" |
This argument ignores the cooling effect of aerosols and the planet's thermal inertia. |
118 |
"It's a climate regime shift" |
There is no evidence that climate has chaotic “regimes” on a long-term basis. |
120 |
"Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project" |
The 'OISM petition' was signed by only a few climatologists. |
122 |
"A drop in volcanic activity caused warming" |
Volcanoes have had no warming effect in recent global warming - if anything, a cooling effect. |
124 |
"Ice isn't melting" |
Arctic sea ice has shrunk by an area equal to Western Australia, and summer or multi-year sea ice might be all gone within a decade. |
126 |
"IPCC ‘disappeared’ the Medieval Warm Period" |
The IPCC simply updated their temperature history graphs to show the best data available at the time. |
128 |
"Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted" |
Weather is chaotic but climate is driven by Earth's energy imbalance, which is more predictable. |
130 |
"Climate 'Skeptics' are like Galileo" |
Modern scientists, not anti-science skeptics, follow in Galileo’s footsteps. |
132 |
"Tuvalu sea level isn't rising" |
Tuvalu sea level is rising 3 times larger than the global average. |
134 |
"Renewables can't provide baseload power" |
A number of renewable sources already do provide baseload power, and we don't need renewables to provide a large percentage of baseload power immediately. |
136 |
"Ice Sheet losses are overestimated" |
A number of independent measurements find extensive ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland. |
138 |
"Melting ice isn't warming the Arctic" |
Melting ice leads to more sunlight being absorbed by water, thus heating the Arctic. |
140 |
"Satellite error inflated Great Lakes temperatures" |
Temperature errors in the Great Lakes region are not used in any global temperature records. |
142 |
"We're heading into cooling" |
There is no scientific basis for claims that the planet will begin to cool in the near future. |
144 |
"The sun is getting hotter" |
The sun has just had the deepest solar minimum in 100 years. |
146 |
"97% consensus on human-caused global warming has been disproven" |
The 97% consensus has been independently confirmed by a number of different approaches and lines of evidence. |
148 |
"It's waste heat" |
Greenhouse warming is adding 100 times more heat to the climate than waste heat. |
150 |
"It warmed just as fast in 1860-1880 and 1910-1940" |
The warming trend over 1970 to 2001 is greater than warming from both 1860 to 1880 and 1910 to 1940. |
152 |
"Record high snow cover was set in winter 2008/2009" |
Winter snow cover in 2008/2009 was average while the long-term trend in spring, summer, and annual snow cover is rapid decline. |
154 |
"Climate change solutions are too expensive" |
Many climate solutions are cheaper than the alternatives before even accounting for the trillions of dollars saved by reducing climate and air pollution. |
156 |
"CERN CLOUD experiment proved cosmic rays are causing global warming" |
The CERN CLOUD experiment only tested one-third of one out of four requirements necessary to blame global warming on cosmic rays, and two of the other requirements have already failed. |
158 |
"It's planetary movements" |
Blaming global warming on the movements of other planets is little more than 'climastrology' and curve fitting without a physical basis. |
160 |
"Water levels correlate with sunspots" |
This detail is irrelevant to the observation of global warming caused by humans. |
162 |
"Positive feedback means runaway warming" |
Positive feedback won't lead to runaway warming; diminishing returns on feedback cycles limit the amplification. |
164 |
"CO2 was higher in the late Ordovician" |
The sun was much cooler during the Ordovician. |
166 |
"Coral atolls grow as sea levels rise" |
Thousands of coral atolls have "drowned" when unable to grow fast enough to survive at sea level. |
168 |
"CO2 increase is natural, not human-caused" |
Many lines of evidence, including simple accounting, demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the increase in atmospheric CO2 is due to human fossil fuel burning. |
170 |
"It's CFCs" |
CFCs contribute at a small level. |
172 |
"Renewable energy investment kills jobs" |
Investment in renewable energy creates more jobs than investment in fossil fuel energy. |
174 |
"Schmittner finds low climate sensitivity" |
The Schmittner et al. study finds low probability of both very low and very high climate sensitivities, and its lower estimate (as compared to the IPCC) is based on a new temperature reconstruction of the Last Glacial Maximum that may or may not withstand the test of time. |
176 |
"DMI show cooling Arctic" |
While summer maximums have showed little trend, the annual average Arctic temperature has risen sharply in recent decades. |
178 |
"It's a climate shift step function caused by natural cycles" |
Natural cycles superimposed on a linear warming trend can be mistaken for step changes, but the underlying warming is caused by the external radiative forcing. |
180 |
"It's only a few degrees" |
A few degrees of global warming has a huge impact on ice sheets, sea levels and other aspects of climate. |
182 |
"CO2 only causes 35% of global warming" |
CO2 and corresponding water vapor feedback are the biggest cause of global warming. |
184 |
"Sea level fell in 2010" |
The temporary drop in sea level in 2010 was due to intense land flooding caused by a strong La Nina. |
186 |
"Climate change isn't increasing extreme weather damage costs" |
The data and research are unclear whether climate change is increasing extreme weather damage costs, but many types of extreme weather are becoming more intense and/or frequent, and disaster costs from extreme weather events are rising. |
188 |
"IPCC human-caused global warming attribution confidence is unfounded" |
The IPCC 95% confidence that humans are responsible for most of the current global warming is simply a summary of the peer-reviewed scientific research. |
190 |
"Ljungqvist broke the hockey stick" |
Ljungqvist's temperature reconstruction is very similar to other reconstructions by Moberg and Mann. |
192 |
"Removing all CO2 would make little difference" |
Removing CO2 would cause most water in the air to rain out and cancel most of the greenhouse effect. |
194 |
"Loehle and Scafetta find a 60 year cycle causing global warming" |
Loehle and Scafetta's paper is nothing more than a curve fitting exercise with no physical basis using an overly simplistic model. |
196 |
"Underground temperatures control climate" |
The amount of heat energy coming out of the Earth is too small to even be worth considering. |
198 |
"Heatwaves have happened before" |
Global warming is increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves. |