Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors
Cook, J., Ellerton, P., & Kinkead, D. (2018). Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors. Environmental Research Letters, 13(2), 024018. Link to PDF & Link to Supplement
The table below is inspired by the simplified supplement and may differ slightly from what is shown in the GIF. This is mostly due to make the text fit into the available space which made it necessary to reword some of it.
| 1 | Identify claim | Volcanoes produce more CO2 than humans. |
| 2 | Argument structure | Premise 1: Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans. Conclusion: Volcanoes have a larger influence on climate change than humans. |
| 3 | Inferential Intent |
Deduction |
| 4 | Validity | VALID |
| 4a | Hidden premises | NONE |
| 5 | Check premises | Premise 1 is false: misrepresentation. Humans emit over 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes. |
| 6 | Status of claim | FALSE The argument is made valid but the premise is false. |
| 7 | Summary of fallacies | Misrepresentation: It is false to say volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans, given that humans emit over 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes. |
Do volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans?
Blog post with background information about the myth deconstructions: Myth deconstructions as animated gifs
To learn more about the fallacies used in the myth deconstructions: A history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial
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