|
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 |
"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 |
"IPCC ‘disappeared’ the Medieval Warm Period" |
The IPCC simply updated their temperature history graphs to show the best data available at the time. |
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 |
"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 |
"Royal Society embraces skepticism" |
The Royal Society still strongly state that human activity is the dominant cause of global warming. |
182 |
"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. |
184 |
"IPCC graph showing accelerating trends is misleading" |
All of the statements made in the IPCC report regarding the figure in question are correct and supported. |
186 |
"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. |
188 |
"Hansen predicted the West Side Highway would be underwater" |
Hansen was speculating on changes that might happen if CO2 doubled. |
190 |
"Humans survived past climate changes" |
Humans have been through climate changes before- but mostly cold ones and mostly in our far distant past. |
192 |
"Ljungqvist broke the hockey stick" |
Ljungqvist's temperature reconstruction is very similar to other reconstructions by Moberg and Mann. |
194 |
"Postma disproved the greenhouse effect" |
Postma's model contains many simple errors; in no way does Postma undermine the existence or necessity of the greenhouse effect. |
196 |
"UAH atmospheric temperatures prove climate models and/or surface temperature data sets are wrong" |
The most likely explanation for UAH data warming less than expected is that the UAH data set is biased low. |
198 |
"We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution" |
CO2 emissions were much smaller 100 years ago. |
200 |
"Animal agriculture and eating meat are the biggest causes of global warming" |
Animal agriculture is responsible for only 14 to 18% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, compared to 60% from fossil fuel burning. |
202 |
"Arctic Storm Caused the 2012 Record Sea Ice Minimum" |
The 2012 Arctic storm only impacted sea ice because of the long-term, human-caused deterioration of Arctic sea ice. |
204 |
"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. |
206 |
"Holistic Management can reverse Climate Change " |
|
208 |
"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. |
210 |
"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. |
212 |
"Nuclear testing is causing global warming" |
CO2 warming is 10,000 times greater than the energy from every nuclear bomb ever exploded. |
214 |
"Satellite record is more reliable than thermometers" |
Thermometers are more reliable than satellites, so there! |
216 |
"Tropical thermostat limits sea surface temperature to 30°C" |
There is no compelling physical justification to suggest that negative feedbacks restrict sea surface temperature to some maximum. |