|
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 |
"Was Greenland really green in the past?" |
Other parts of the earth got colder when Greenland got warmer. |
42 |
"Greenland is gaining ice" |
Greenland on the whole is losing ice, as confirmed by satellite measurement. |
44 |
"There's no empirical evidence" |
There are multiple lines of direct observations that humans are causing global warming. |
46 |
"Other planets are warming" |
Mars and Jupiter are not warming, and anyway the sun has recently been cooling slightly. |
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 |
"It's not us" |
Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change. |
60 |
"It's Pacific Decadal Oscillation" |
The PDO shows no trend, and therefore the PDO is not responsible for the trend of global warming. |
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 |
"Clouds provide negative feedback" |
Evidence is building that net cloud feedback is likely positive and unlikely to be strongly negative. |
68 |
"Sea level rise predictions are exaggerated" |
Sea level rise is now increasing faster than predicted due to unexpectedly rapid ice melting. |
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 |
"Jupiter is warming" |
Jupiter is not warming, and anyway 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 |
"It's land use" |
Land use plays a minor role in climate change, although carbon sequestration may help to mitigate. |
88 |
"Record snowfall disproves global warming" |
Warming leads to increased evaporation and precipitation, which falls as increased snow in winter. |
90 |
"Wildfires are not caused by global warming" |
Global warming worsens wildfires by creating drier conditions with more fuel for fires to spread further and faster. |
92 |
"CO2 is coming from the ocean" |
The ocean is absorbing massive amounts of CO2, and is becoming more acidic as a result. |
94 |
"IPCC overestimate temperature rise" |
Monckton used the IPCC equation in an inappropriate manner. |
96 |
"Pluto is warming" |
And the sun has been recently cooling. |
98 |
"CO2 limits will make little difference" |
If every nation agrees to limit CO2 emissions, we can achieve significant cuts on a global scale. |
100 |
"Sea level rise is decelerating" |
Global sea level data shows that sea level rise has been increasing since 1880 while future sea level rise predictions are based on physics, not statistics. |
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 |
"Dropped stations introduce warming bias" |
If the dropped stations had been kept, the temperature would actually be slightly higher. |
108 |
"It's not urgent" |
A large amount of warming is delayed, and if we don’t act now we could pass tipping points. |
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 |
"It's global brightening" |
This is a complex aerosol effect with unclear temperature significance. |
118 |
"It's a climate regime shift" |
There is no evidence that climate has chaotic “regimes” on a long-term basis. |
120 |
"A drop in volcanic activity caused warming" |
Volcanoes have had no warming effect in recent global warming - if anything, a cooling effect. |
122 |
"Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project" |
The 'OISM petition' was signed by only a few climatologists. |
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 |
"Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted" |
Weather is chaotic but climate is driven by Earth's energy imbalance, which is more predictable. |
128 |
"It's ozone" |
Ozone has only a small effect. |
130 |
"Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were ignored" |
An independent inquiry found CRU is a small research unit with limited resources and their rigour and honesty are not in doubt. |
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 |
"CRU tampered with temperature data" |
An independent inquiry went back to primary data sources and were able to replicate CRU's results. |
138 |
"Breathing contributes to CO2 buildup" |
By breathing out, we are simply returning to the air the same CO2 that was there to begin with. |
140 |
"Satellite error inflated Great Lakes temperatures" |
Temperature errors in the Great Lakes region are not used in any global temperature records. |
142 |
"Murry Salby finds CO2 rise is natural" |
Multiple lines of evidence make it very clear that the rise in atmospheric CO2 is due to human emissions. |
144 |
"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. |
146 |
"The sun is getting hotter" |
The sun has just had the deepest solar minimum in 100 years. |
148 |
"An exponential increase in CO2 will result in a linear increase in temperature" |
CO2 levels are rising so fast that unless we decrease emissions, global warming will accelerate this century. |
150 |
"CO2 emissions do not correlate with CO2 concentration" |
That humans are causing the rise in atmospheric CO2 is confirmed by multiple isotopic analyses. |
152 |
"It's waste heat" |
Greenhouse warming is adding 100 times more heat to the climate than waste heat. |
154 |
"Water vapor in the stratosphere stopped global warming" |
This possibility just means that future global warming could be even worse. |
156 |
"Mauna Loa is a volcano" |
The global trend is calculated from hundreds of CO2 measuring stations and confirmed by satellites. |
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 |
"Antarctica is too cold to lose ice" |
Glaciers are sliding faster into the ocean because ice shelves are thinning due to warming oceans. |
162 |
"Skeptics were kept out of the IPCC?" |
Official records, Editors and emails suggest CRU scientists acted in the spirit if not the letter of IPCC rules. |
164 |
"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. |
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 |
"No warming in 16 years" |
Global surface temperatures have continued to rise steadily beneath short-term natural cooling effects, and the rise in global heat content has not slowed at all. |
170 |
"CO2 limits won't cool the planet" |
CO2 limits won't cool the planet, but they can make the difference between continued accelerating global warming to catastrophic levels vs. slowing and eventually stopping the warming at hopefully safe levels. |
172 |
"Renewable energy investment kills jobs" |
Investment in renewable energy creates more jobs than investment in fossil fuel energy. |
174 |
"Scientists retracted claim that sea levels are rising" |
The Siddall 2009 paper was retracted because its predicted sea level rise was too low. |
176 |
"Ben Santer rewrote the 1995 IPCC report" |
The IPCC operates by consensus. Ben Santer could not have and did not single-handedly alter the 1995 IPCC report. Accusations to the contrary are simply an attempt to re-write history. |
178 |
"Greenland has only lost a tiny fraction of its ice mass" |
Greenland's ice loss is accelerating & will add metres of sea level rise in upcoming centuries. |
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 |
"Arctic sea ice extent was lower in the past" |
Current Arctic sea ice extent is the lowest in the past several thousand years. |
184 |
"CO2 only causes 35% of global warming" |
CO2 and corresponding water vapor feedback are the biggest cause of global warming. |
186 |
"It's satellite microwave transmissions" |
Satellite transmissions are extremely small and irrelevant. |
188 |
"Great Barrier Reef is in good shape" |
Evidence clearly shows that both ocean warming and acidification due to human CO2 emissions are damaging the Great Barrier Reef |
190 |
"Heatwaves have happened before" |
Global warming is increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves. |
192 |
"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. |
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 |
"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. |
198 |
"Underground temperatures control climate" |
The amount of heat energy coming out of the Earth is too small to even be worth considering. |
200 |
"Akasofu Proved Global Warming is Just a Recovery from the Little Ice Age" |
Akasofu provided no physical explanation for the supposed "recovery" from the Little Ice Age, nor did he explain how the increased greenhouse effect isn't causing global warming. |
202 |
"Arctic sea ice loss in the 1940s was similar to today's" |
Current Arctic sea ice decline is far greater than any decline earlier in the 20th Century. |
204 |
"BEST hides the decline in global temperature" |
BEST data shows an approximately 0.3°C per decade global warming trend over land. |
206 |
"Climate science peer review is pal review" |
Climate 'skeptics' including Patrick Michaels are the ones who have been guilty of true pal review in the journal Climate Research from 1997 to 2003. |
208 |
"Electric vehicles cannot function in hot or cold weather" |
Extreme temperatures can decrease EV range, particularly extreme cold, but gasoline-powered cars are also susceptible to extreme weather conditions and EVs may actually be more reliable than gasoline-powered cars in the cold. |
210 |
"Electric vehicles will cost the United States many automobile industry jobs" |
EV manufacturing need not result in fewer jobs in the U.S. automobile industry with over 179,000 announced U.S. jobs related to EVs and EV batteries from 2015 to 2023. |
212 |
"Electromagnetic radiation from wind turbines poses a threat to human health" |
Multiple studies have found that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by wind turbines are lower than those generated by most common household appliances and that they easily meet rigorous international safety standards. |
214 |
"Holistic Management can reverse Climate Change " |
Soils managed holistically show no significant boost in productivity or overall storage of carbon over a long period of time and are therefore not a solution for climate change. |
216 |
"IPCC edited out natural causes of climate change" |
The 2007 IPCC report explicitly discusses natural contributions to climate change but concludes that natural contribution to recent climate change is small. |
218 |
"Low-frequency noise from wind turbines harms human health and causes " |
The weight of the evidence suggests that there is no direct causal correlation between low-frequency noise from wind turbines and human health. |
220 |
"No long tail means climate sensitivity is low" |
New studies showing climate sensitivity may not be high fail to account for the accelerated warming in the deep ocean, but their estimates are nevertheless within the IPCC expected range. |
222 |
"Nuclear testing is causing global warming" |
CO2 warming is 10,000 times greater than the energy from every nuclear bomb ever exploded. |
224 |
"Planting a trillion trees will solve global warming" |
Maximum afforestation and reforestation (close to a trillion new trees) would sequester around 75 billion tons of carbon, which is 7–8 years of annual human emissions at current rates and enough to slow global warming by less than a quarter degree Celsius. |
226 |
"Reliance on solar will make the United States dependent on China and other countries" |
Although the United States still imports a majority of the solar panels it installs, domestic solar manufacturing is on the rise and likely to grow further as manufacturers open factories in the U.S. |
228 |
"Shadow flicker from wind turbines can trigger seizures in people with epilepsy" |
Wind turbines operate between much lower than the threshold frequency typically required to cause a seizure and public-health studies have found that wind turbines do not cause seizures. |
230 |
"Solar energy is more expensive than fossil fuels and completely dependent on subsidies" |
Unsubsidized solar energy is now generally cheaper than fossil fuels and according to the International Energy Agency, solar PV is “the cheapest source of new electricity generation in most parts of the world." |
232 |
"Solar energy is worse for the climate than burning fossil fuels" |
The lifecycle emissions of solar energy are far lower than fossil fuel sources, with the emissions of coal being 23 times greater than solar PV while the emissions of natural gas are 11 times greater than solar PV. |
234 |
"Solar panels generate too much waste and will overwhelm landfills" |
Waste from solar panels is trivial compared to the waste generated by fossil fuels, with coal ash generating 300-800 times more waste, and oily sludge generating 2-5 times more waste than PVs. |
236 |
"Solar projects will hurt farmers and rural communities" |
Solar deployment would utilize a relatively small percentage of U.S. land when compared to the land currently being used for agriculture. |
238 |
"Toxic heavy metals leach out from solar panels and pose a threat to human health" |
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources has assessed that there is little, if any, risk of chemical releases to the environment during normal use, and that all materials in a solar panel are "insoluble and non-volatile at ambient conditions," and "don’t mix with water or vaporize into air." |
240 |
"Utility-scale solar farms destroy the value of nearby homes" |
Data across multiple studies show that utility-scale solar projects only have a minor impact on the closest properties and no effect on properties more than a mile away. |
242 |
"We do not have sufficient mineral resources for [large-scale] solar development" |
Multiple analyses have found that global mineral resources are likely sufficient to meet long-term demand across all energy transition sectors, including EVs and transmission. |
244 |
"Wind energy is unreliable" |
As with solar energy, complete reliance on wind energy would pose intermittency challenges. However, wind, solar, and storage together can provide the majority of the country’s electricity without compromising reliability. |
246 |
"Wind turbines are a major threat to birds, bats, and other wildlife." |
Wind power is a relatively minor source of mortality for birds compared to climate change, which threatens two-thirds of all North American bird species with a heightened risk of extinction. |
248 |
"Wind turbines are error prone and a threat to human health and safety" |
Turbine collapse or breakage are extremely rare, utilising safety mechanisms to survive extreme weather conditions, and the mortality rate from wind energy pales in comparison to the risks associated with fossil fuels. |
250 |
"Wind turbines destroy nearby property values" |
While there might initially be a small decrease in property values, the effect all but disappears with time and distance from a wind project and the presence of a fossil fuel fired power plant has greater impact on property values. |
252 |
"Wind turbines will generate an unsustainable amount of waste" |
Roughly 85% of the mass of a wind turbine, including the tower, gearbox, and generator, consist of metals that are easily recycled. |