Climate Change Myth Fact Checking

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Myth: The climates changed before

Truth: The climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant force and the production of greenhouse gasses is a catalyst for Climate Change

Myth: The sun is causing Global Warming

Truth: In the last 35 years of Global Warming, the sun and climate have been going in opposite directions

Myth: The Earth has been cooling

Truth: The three hottest years on record are 2016, 2020, and 2015

Myth: Antarctica has been gaining ice

Truth: First of all satellites have measured Antarctica's land ice rate and it's decreasing at an accelerated rate. Second, Antarctica is only gaining ice because the melted ice becomes solid in winter

Myth: CO2 lags temperature

Truth: CO2 didn't initiate warming from past ice ages but it did amplify the warming

Myth: Sea level rise is exaggerated

Truth: A variety of different measurements find steadily rising sea levels over the past century. Also, since 1992 seas around the world have risen an average of 3 inches.

Myth: Oceans are cooling

Truth: The most recent ocean measurements show consistent warming

Myth: Climate scientists are in it for the money

Truth: Climate scientists could make far more money in other careers - most notably, working for the oil industry.

Myth: Climate Change is a 1500 year cycle

Truth: Ancient natural cycles are irrelevant for attributing recent global warming to humans

Myth: Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

Truth: The natural cycle adds and removes CO2 to keep a balance; humans add extra CO2 without removing any

Myth: CO2 limits will harm the economy

Truth:The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over

Myth: CO2 is not a pollutant

Truth: Through its impacts on the climate, CO2 presents a danger to public health and welfare, and thus qualifies as an air pollutant

Myth: It's impossible for scientists to know the CO2 levels in the atmosphere millions of years ago.

Truth: Scientists dig through ice cores which trap air bubbles. Then they analyze the carbon concentration to find the PPM of carbon in the atmosphere at a specific time

Myth: CO2 is plant food

Truth: The effects of enhanced CO2 on terrestrial plants are variable and complex and dependent on numerous factors

Myth: There's no empirical evidence

Truth: There are multiple lines of direct observations that humans are causing global warming

Myth: There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature

Truth: There is long-term correlation between CO2 and global temperature; other effects are short-term

Myth: Scientists tried to 'hide the decline' in global temperature

Truth: The 'decline' refers to a decline in northern tree-rings, not global temperature, and is openly discussed in papers and the IPCC reports

Myth: Renewable energy is too expensive

Truth: When you account for all of the costs associated with burning coal and other fossil fuels, like air pollution and health effects, in reality they are significantly more expensive than most renewable energy sources

Myth: Sea level rise is decelerating

Truth: 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

Myth: It's too hard to do anything about Climate Change

Truth: Scientific studies have determined that current technology is sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid dangerous climate change

Myth: Climate Change isn't an urgent problem

Truth: A large amount of warming is delayed, and if we don’t act now we could pass tipping points

Myth: Scientists changed "Global Warming" to "Climate Change" because warming stopped

Truth: Climate Change is more scientifically comprehensive and is growing in preferred use to Global Warming because it helps convey that there are changes in addition to rising temperatures.

Myth: There isn't any scientific concensus about Climate Change

Truth: Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that Anthropogenic Climate Change is happening

Myth: Didn't 31,000 scientists sign their names for the Oregon Petition rejecting the global warming Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

Truth: The petition was created by people and groups with political motivations and their distribution tactics were misleading. Also, the petiition is presented with almost no accountability regarding the authenticity of the signatures.

Myth: Didn't scientists predict that there would be a global cooling in the 1970's

Truth: The majority of climate scientists in the 70's believed that earth's temperatures would increase due to the greenhouse effect. Thomas C. Peterson of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C surveyed major journal papers published between 1965 and 1979 and found that only seven articles predicted that global average temperature would continue to cool. Also, earth's global temperature anomaly increased by 0.5 degrees Farenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius) from 1970-80.

Myth: Didn't scientists make countless predictions in 1970, none of which came true

Truth: The main 1970 predictions are from Paul Ehrlich, an American Biologists, who predicted that 100-200 million people would starve to death in the 80's. His predictions didn't come true, but famine and starvation continued throughout the world. Also, the majority of 1970's computer climate models were accurate.

Myth: Climate models conducted 50 years ago were inaccurate

Truth: Researchers compared annual average surface temperatures across the globe to the surface temperatures predicted in 17 forecasts. Those predictions were drawn from 14 separate computer models released between 1970 and 2001. Most of the models accurately predicted recent global surface temperatures, which have risen approximately 0.9°C since 1970.

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