Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Settings

All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Home Arguments Software Resources Comments The Consensus Project Translations About Support

Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Mastodon MeWe

Twitter YouTube RSS Posts RSS Comments Email Subscribe


Climate's changed before
It's the sun
It's not bad
There is no consensus
It's cooling
Models are unreliable
Temp record is unreliable
Animals and plants can adapt
It hasn't warmed since 1998
Antarctica is gaining ice
View All Arguments...



Username
Password
New? Register here
Forgot your password?

Latest Posts

Archives

Skeptical Science iPhone Reports

Here are global warming skeptic arguments ranked by how often they've been reported from the Skeptical Science iPhone app. You can download the iPhone app for free from http://itunes.com/apps/skepticalscience.

Total # of reports submitted: 16441

1 Models are unreliable 15.1%
2 Temp record is unreliable 7.4%
3 Hockey stick is broken 4.8%
4 Climate's changed before 4.4%
5 It's the sun 3.0%
6 There's no empirical evidence 2.8%
7 There is no consensus 2.2%
8 It's cooling 2.2%
9 1934 - hottest year on record 2.1%
10 CO2 limits will harm the economy 2.1%
11 It hasn't warmed since 1998 1.9%
12 It's freaking cold! 1.9%
13 Antarctica is gaining ice 1.6%
14 Medieval Warm Period was warmer 1.5%
15 We're heading into an ice age 1.4%
16 Renewables can't provide baseload power 1.4%
17 Increasing CO2 has little to no effect 1.3%
18 Polar bear numbers are increasing 1.3%
19 Tree-rings diverge from temperature after 1960 1.2%
20 It's not bad 1.2%
21 It's a 1500 year cycle 1.1%
22 Ice age predicted in the 70s 1.1%
23 CO2 is not a pollutant 1.0%
24 Al Gore got it wrong 1.0%
25 It's Urban Heat Island effect 1.0%
26 Animals and plants can adapt 1.0%
27 Climategate CRU emails suggest conspiracy 1.0%
28 CO2 lags temperature 0.9%
29 Was Greenland really green in the past? 0.8%
30 Global warming stopped in 1998, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2010, ???? 0.8%
31 Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans 0.8%
32 Climate sensitivity is low 0.8%
33 Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995 0.7%
34 Oceans are cooling 0.7%
35 Sea level rise predictions are exaggerated 0.7%
36 Ice isn't melting 0.7%
37 We're coming out of the Little Ice Age 0.7%
38 It's a natural cycle 0.6%
39 CO2 was higher in the past 0.6%
40 2009-2010 winter saw record cold spells 0.6%
41 IPCC is alarmist 0.6%
42 Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions 0.6%
43 It's microsite influences 0.5%
44 Dropped stations introduce warming bias 0.5%
45 The science isn't settled 0.5%
46 IPCC were wrong about Himalayan glaciers 0.5%
47 Greenland ice sheet won't collapse 0.4%
48 Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas 0.4%
49 Glaciers are growing 0.4%
50 Record snowfall disproves global warming 0.4%
51 Arctic icemelt is a natural cycle 0.4%
52 Sea level rise is exaggerated 0.4%
53 Less than half of published scientists endorse global warming 0.4%
54 Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate 0.4%
55 Scientists can't even predict weather 0.4%
56 It's only a few degrees 0.4%
57 CO2 effect is saturated 0.4%
58 Greenland is gaining ice 0.3%
59 Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project 0.3%
60 Solar cycles cause global warming 0.3%
61 CO2 has a short residence time 0.3%
62 Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected 0.3%
63 There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature 0.3%
64 Scientists tried to 'hide the decline' in global temperature 0.3%
65 Other planets are warming 0.3%
66 Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong 0.3%
67 CO2 only causes 35% of global warming 0.3%
68 Arctic sea ice has recovered 0.3%
69 They changed the name from 'global warming' to 'climate change' 0.3%
70 It's cosmic rays 0.3%
71 Mars is warming 0.3%
72 Ocean acidification isn't serious 0.3%
73 500 scientists refute the consensus 0.3%
74 It cooled mid-century 0.3%
75 CO2 is plant food 0.3%
76 Trenberth can't account for the lack of warming 0.2%
77 Melting ice isn't warming the Arctic 0.2%
78 CO2 is not the only driver of climate 0.2%
79 Warming causes CO2 rise 0.2%
80 Satellite error inflated Great Lakes temperatures 0.2%
81 Peer review process was corrupted 0.2%
82 Murry Salby finds CO2 rise is natural 0.2%
83 It's El Niño 0.2%
84 The IPCC consensus is phoney 0.2%
85 Greenhouse effect has been falsified 0.2%
86 Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted 0.2%
87 We're heading into cooling 0.2%
88 CRU tampered with temperature data 0.2%
89 The sun is getting hotter 0.2%
90 Mt. Kilimanjaro's ice loss is due to land use 0.2%
91 Naomi Oreskes' study on consensus was flawed 0.2%
92 2nd law of thermodynamics contradicts greenhouse theory 0.2%
93 It's methane 0.2%
94 IPCC overestimate temperature rise 0.2%
95 Lindzen and Choi find low climate sensitivity 0.2%
96 CO2 measurements are suspect 0.2%
97 Neptune is warming 0.2%
98 Solar Cycle Length proves its the sun 0.2%
99 Humidity is falling 0.2%
100 It's a climate regime shift 0.1%
101 Jupiter is warming 0.1%
102 Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming 0.1%
103 It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low 0.1%
104 It's albedo 0.1%
105 Scientists retracted claim that sea levels are rising 0.1%
106 It's CFCs 0.1%
107 CO2 was higher in the late Ordovician 0.1%
108 DMI show cooling Arctic 0.1%
109 Springs aren't advancing 0.1%
110 Antarctica is too cold to lose ice 0.1%
111 IPCC were wrong about Amazon rainforests 0.1%
112 Hurricanes aren't linked to global warming 0.1%
113 Southern sea ice is increasing 0.1%
114 Roy Spencer finds negative feedback 0.1%
115 Positive feedback means runaway warming 0.1%
116 Greenland has only lost a tiny fraction of its ice mass 0.1%
117 We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution 0.1%
118 Skeptics were kept out of the IPCC? 0.1%
119 Postma disproved the greenhouse effect 0.1%
120 Record high snow cover was set in winter 2008/2009 0.1%
121 It warmed just as fast in 1860-1880 and 1910-1940 0.1%
122 Royal Society embraces skepticism 0.1%
123 A drop in volcanic activity caused warming 0.1%
124 CO2 is coming from the ocean 0.1%
125 Tuvalu sea level isn't rising 0.1%
126 Pluto is warming 0.1%
127 It's aerosols 0.1%
128 Breathing contributes to CO2 buildup 0.1%
129 Ice Sheet losses are overestimated 0.1%
130 It's Pacific Decadal Oscillation 0.1%
131 Most of the last 10,000 years were warmer 0.1%
132 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were ignored 0.1%
133 There's no tropospheric hot spot 0.1%
134 Water levels correlate with sunspots 0.1%
135 Soares finds lack of correlation between CO2 and temperature 0.1%
136 CO2 is not increasing 0.1%
137 97% consensus on human-caused global warming has been disproven 0.1%
138 Satellites show no warming in the troposphere 0.1%
139 It's the ocean 0.1%
140 Clouds provide negative feedback 0.1%
141 It's ozone 0.1%
142 It's land use 0.1%
143 Corals are resilient to bleaching 0.1%
144 Arctic sea ice extent was lower in the past 0.1%
145 Mauna Loa is a volcano 0.1%
146 It's waste heat 0.1%
147 Arctic sea ice loss is matched by Antarctic sea ice gain 0.0%
148 CERN CLOUD experiment proved cosmic rays are causing global warming 0.0%
149 Sea level fell in 2010 0.0%
150 It's satellite microwave transmissions 0.0%
151 Loehle and Scafetta find a 60 year cycle causing global warming 0.0%
152 Water vapor in the stratosphere stopped global warming 0.0%
153 An exponential increase in CO2 will result in a linear increase in temperature 0.0%
154 Sea level is not rising 0.0%
155 Renewable energy investment kills jobs 0.0%
156 No warming in 16 years 0.0%
157 Ljungqvist broke the hockey stick 0.0%
158 Climate scientists are in it for the money 0.0%
159 CO2 is just a trace gas 0.0%
160 No long tail means climate sensitivity is low 0.0%
161 CO2 emissions do not correlate with CO2 concentration 0.0%
162 A grand solar minimum could trigger another ice age 0.0%
163 CO2 limits will hurt the poor 0.0%
164 Renewable energy is too expensive 0.0%
165 CO2 increase is natural, not human-caused 0.0%
166 It's not urgent 0.0%
167 IPCC graph showing accelerating trends is misleading 0.0%
168 It's global brightening 0.0%
169 Heatwaves have happened before 0.0%
170 Arctic was warmer in 1940 0.0%
171 Humans survived past climate changes 0.0%
172 Removing all CO2 would make little difference 0.0%
173 The 97% consensus on human-caused global warming is a robust result 0.0%
174 It's clouds 0.0%
175 Climate change solutions are too expensive 0.0%
176 It's a climate shift step function caused by natural cycles 0.0%
177 Arctic Storm Caused the 2012 Record Sea Ice Minimum 0.0%
178 Climate 'Skeptics' are like Galileo 0.0%
179 CO2 limits will make little difference 0.0%
180 IPCC human-caused global warming attribution confidence is unfounded 0.0%
181 Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect 0.0%
182 Animal agriculture and eating meat are the biggest causes of global warming 0.0%
183 IPCC ‘disappeared’ the Medieval Warm Period 0.0%


The Consensus Project Website

THE ESCALATOR

(free to republish)


© Copyright 2025 John Cook
Home | Translations | About Us | Privacy | Contact Us