#climatemythdebunking — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #climatemythdebunking, aggregated by home.social.
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We're constantly seeking to make our #ClimateMythDebunking tools easier to pick up and use.
Youtube comments (where heated ''debate'' over #ChangeChange is often found) present a special challenge. Often it's helpful to cite a source on the web, but links to other places are swiftly removed by Youtube (you're never supposed to leave).
Baerbel Winkler has created Youtube videos consisting of chapters each covering a particular myth as treated in our collaborations with Gigafact. A short url will take a viewer directly to the item in play.
Learn about how to use these in our post.
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Having wended her way by train to Vienna, Austria for the 2025 #EGU 2025 General Assembly, our volunteer Baerbel Winkler will be presenting a synopsis of our possibly unparalleled except by the UN translation effort, our lessons learned and challenges still to be met.
Much of our #ClimateMythDebunking and other content is available in 29 languages. It's a massive effort, remarkable as the product of all-volunteer energy.
Details at the link-- including how to help.
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Here's our latest roundup of news related to #GlobalWarming and #ClimateChange. This edition of our weekly feature includes 28 articles, conveniently collated into categories, efficient to access.
If you'd like to have a tap on the shoulder when we publish these and our other regular and special features supporting #ClimateMythDebunking and helping us to squarely face our #ClimateAccident, you can easily join our mailing list. We --never-- "share" addresses.
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Our online course Denial101x delivered in collaboration with Australia's University of Queensland recently concluded, after 9 years of tutelage.
We're sad to see it ended (circumstances beyond our control) but:
* Students enrolled: 50k+
* Student learning goals achieved: >88%
* Countries reached: 156We've woven much of the course material into our extensive inventory of #ClimateMythDebunking resources.
More reflections on this fruitful experience at the link.
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The fundamental mechanisms of our accidentally heating our planet are not very complicated in terms of material effects.
We've made it harder for energy to escape the planet, without a commensurate decrease in energy input.
So we warm up. It's that simple.
But when it comes to obfuscation and distraction, #GlobalWarming is a fertile ground. All sorts of complexities can be introduced, to confuse.
Here's the latest collaborative #ClimateMythDebunking from #Gigafact and Skeptical Science.
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What's an "AIV?" Autonomous Information Vehicle, that's what.
It's our term for animated graphics we created to easily share in various locations, wherever the seemingly universal and immortal animated GIF scheme works.
AIVs present climate myth debunkings in step-by-step fashion. They can quickly stand in for laborious and endless typing when "somebody on the internet is wrong."
Here's an example. The rest are at the link, ready to release!
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About 50 years ago and with fresh information (particularly the marine record of oxygen isotopes) we located our position on the chronology of successive continental-scale glaciations, "ice ages." Papers were published about this, making a splash in the popular press-- and later becoming fodder for people with a monetary stake in creating confusion.
The next ice age is a changing story, but not for the reasons touted by climate bunkaneers.
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Our #ClimateMythDebunking access statistics are a proxy for popularity of particular items of #ClimateBunk.
Per these stats the "MWP" or "Medieval Warming Period" has done a steady fair-to-middling trade in #ClimateConfusion, for many years.
Here's a new 160-word treatment, created in collaboration with #GigaFact and designed for quick-and-easy use by understaffed newsrooms.
This one's quite simple, a bit easier to fit into few words-- yet the myth still has legs.
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Happy (not sure that's _quite_ the right sentiment) to see @SkepticalScience's recent revamp of our #ClimateMythDebunking for the Medieval Warm Period cited in this Guardian fact check.
Along with two others.
We do volcanoes as well, but no complaints. :-)
Those of us too close to this topic think of these #ClimateMyths as old and harmless, but here's Reform UK breathing new life into 'em. Ignore at our peril.
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2011: "medieval" relative to 2024? Perhaps so, in online terms. In any case the internet-ancient ca. 2011 #ClimateMyth centered on the "Medieval Warming Period" (MWP) as a dodge to exculpate us from our accidentally warming our planet continues to resonate. So our #ClimateMythDebunking access statistics indicate, as a proxy measure.
We've been doing an overall update of our #ClimateBunk treatments. Now up: the #MWP, with an at-a-glance treatment.
Opinions welcome!
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How to effect positive change: pick a strategy, marry with tactics-- consistently. Find an important niche needing more service, fill it. Don't become distracted, avoid redundancy.
That's how we operate Skeptical Science. We focus on #ClimateMythDebunking services to the public.
We're partnering with #GigaFact, a new nonprofit following the above general plan by providing newsrooms easy access to brief but definitive rebuttals to misinformation and disinformation.
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This article has the virtuous feature of a very terrific "where do we stand now" introduction.
A complete education.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2024.2316757?af=R
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Polar bears are iconic symbols of climate change. Who hasn't seen the near-cliche image of a bear standing on a tiny ice floe?
These animals' ambassadorial status and powerful emotional resonance attract cherry-picking hair-splitting climate change deniers in droves. Our first debunking of this drivel was published in 2009.
Freshly revised for the 4th time, now with our "at a glance" treatment. How does it work for you? Let us know!
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/polar-bears-global-warming.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
"It's waste heat." This climate myth had its time in the sun; just see comments dating back to 2010 and then dribbling on for the next 11 years. Our rebuttal still lands a few reads per week.
In reality, energy (mostly stored in fossil fuels) we're liberating via waste heat pales in comparison to feedback effects of combustion CO2 emissions.
We've revised our treatment of this topic to make it easier to understand. Reviews welcome!
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"CO2 is plant food."
Yes, like carbohydrates for us humans.
Imagine: massively increase carbohydrate intake while leaving proteins, minerals etc. constant. Does it follow that we'd be healthier, more thriving? Obviously not. It's not different for plants, but the "tailpipe emissions are good for plants" crowd (selling raw material for emissions) would like us to believe in this magic.
This rebuttal newly revised. Reviews welcome, appreciated!
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/co2-plant-food-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks@utm-term=sks -
"What is methane's contribution to global warming?"
A fair question but not an excuse or an escape hatch for culpability.
Any "GHG sources, sinks and flux" section of our weekly research reports suggests that the future of proportionality is in question; we're mobilizing forces that may end up beyond our control. But right now, CH4 is not the Big Kahuna in our climate drama.
We've revised this discussion, and included a form for feedback.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/methane-and-global-warming-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
Another week and another raking of ashes refusing to entirely cool.
"What is causing the increase in atmospheric CO2?"
It beggars belief, but this faint hot-spot of cultivated ignorance still glows a little bit. Why? Because pretending we don't know will allow monetization of fossil fuels to continue just a little longer.
Revised and updated: our #ClimateMythDebunking of this closed question. Comments and suggestions welcome-- a convenient form is provided!
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"Oh, the places you'll go!" -- Dr. Seuss
In the #ClimateMythDebunking arena we find ourselves dealing with such as this:
"If Senator Wong was really serious about her science she would stop breathing because you inhale air that's got 385 parts per million carbon dioxide in it and you exhale air with about ten times as much..."
So here we are; we have arrived at our destination-- synthetic ignorance as "active measures." It finds traction.
Newly revised treatment:
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"Has the greenhouse effect been falsified?"
No. The term "greenhouse effect" is an analogy. Unfortunately, while analogies are very helpful in promoting understanding, they're also susceptible to rhetorical exploitation by people promoting synthetic ignorance.
So, it's necessary to explain. Our new at-a-glance treatment seeks to do that in a way that's palatable to people not obsessed with the topic. Take a look and let us know what you think!
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/does-greenhouse-effect-exist-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
"...these global warming studies that now we're seeing (are) a bunch of snake oil science." --Sarah Palin, 2014
Commemorating 10 years of "wrong then and wrong now," our prolific author John Mason revises our debunking of global warming evidence denial. Climate gullibility erodes at a geologically slow rate, so here we are, still grinding away!
Lots of evolving evidence to sift. Our new-fangled "at a glance" treatment tries to keep it accessible.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/evidence-for-global-warming-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
"IPCC is alarmist."
Hardly. In fact, of late the poor old IPCC is steadily peppered with accusations of the opposite. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't," so to speak. Often, critiques share in common fundamental misunderstandings of the IPCC's role and purpose.
Our updated rebuttal to "they're alarmist!" walks readers through some IPCC basics. What can we do to further improve it? Please let us know via the handy embedded form.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/ipcc-scientific-consensus-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
"They changed the name from 'global warming' to 'climate change'."
Barely connected to the science of climate change at all. Even so, we can drape this thin semantic tissue onto the hard edges of reality's landscape and see what pokes through.
Who's "they," and exactly when and how did the plan happen? It almost goes without saying that these "facts" are valid only between certain sets of ears, but there are details. Reviews invited.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/climate-change-global-warming-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
Following up on our March OP: Sooner than we thought we have a "winner," and it's --very-- annoying!
"Models are unreliable" is our first rebuttal past the post of 2,000,000 reads-- in dubious company.
In reality climate models are solidly reliable for the purpose of broad guidance of public policy. Our explanation mentions continuous refinement, leading to useful insights for adaptation as models are scaled for regional coverage.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/climate-models-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=mastodon&utm-term=sks -
"It's easy to confuse current weather events with long-term climate trends. It's a bit like being at the beach, trying to figure out if the tide is rising or falling just by watching two or three individual waves roll in and out. The slow change of the tide is masked by the constant churning of the waves. Watch for 20-30 minutes and you should get a much better idea."
Analogy from our revision of "Does cold weather disprove global warming?"
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/global-warming-cold-weather-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
We'd like to improve our agility for dealing with newly-emergent climate misinformation, revisitation of old claims by people in general, and celebrity misinformers talking on platforms with high potential for causing harm.
So, we're exploring publishing a weekly feature, with the working title "Bunk of the Week." We appreciate and value your help in shaping our direction. Follow the link to a short series of questions, if you'd like to help.
https://sks.to/bunk-feedback?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks
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Familiar story – a physicist drawing attention by declaring "climate scientists have got climate science all wrong!"
He (it’s always a ‘he’) was born before color television was invented, usually retired, perhaps having won a Nobel Prize, but with zero climate science research or expertise. Happer. Vahrenholt. Giaever. Cohen. Koonin.
Now John Clauser, trading on his authority to sow confusion.
Let's take a closer look at Clauser's claims.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/clauser-latest-climate-denying-physicist.html?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
Cherry-picked arguments to the effect that climate-induced sea level rise is a figment of scientific imagination are increasingly swamped and submerged by unfolding reality.
But "wrong" was never a problem in the denier mind, given that disagreement is ideologically rather than factually grounded. Which is why our SLR debunking still floats near the #20 spot in weekly reads.
Now refreshed! Visit, take a read, let us know what you think.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise-basic.htm?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
Skeptical Science's ace bunk marksman Bob Loblaw disassembles and skewers a deeply flawed, shopped-until-it-dropped paper authored by Patrick Frank and published in the journal "Sensors."
Frank fails to mount a case to the effect that we need not worry about climate change-- because uncertainty. Bob sorts it out.
"Spoiler alert: Patrick Frank can’t do basic first-year statistics."
Brandolini's Law applies, but with a nicer ratio than usual.
#ClimateMythDebunking
https://skepticalscience.com/frank_propagation_uncertainty.html?utm-source=mastodon&utm-campaign=socialnetworks&utm-term=sks -
The "OISM Petition" won't lie quietly in its grave, still shambles into view from time to time-- prodded to action by fake skeptics casting doubt on climate science.
We've updated our treatment of the petition, which unlike scientific consensus and its formal underpinnings was simply an uncontrolled poll with a self-selected sample of respondents.
Even if this rubbish is unfamiliar, the story behind creating the propaganda is instructive.