Politifact Climate Change

As global leaders discussed climate change and other issues at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a social media post sought to downplay humanity’s role in climate change. "Climate change is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be tracked throughout prehistoric eras," the caption on the Jan. 17 Instagram post says. The caption also claims that several ice ages during the late Triassic period prove Earth’s changing climate is a naturally occurring "constant part of life." The post includes a screenshot of a tweet that says, "If your global crisis requires publicity stunts to convince everyone there is a crisis, there is no global crisis." The Instagram post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

(Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) A temperature marquee sign at a Citizens National Bank building reads 104 degrees on Aug. 2, 2022 in Emporia, Kansas. (AP/MediaPunch) Global temperatures are rising, and there is ample evidence to support that fact. But that hasn’t stopped some people from claiming they’ve found proof that climate change concerns are overblown.

An article circulating on Facebook claims that U.S. agencies’ use of flawed data exaggerates the severity of climate change. "96% of U.S. climate data is corrupted," reads the headline of one July 27 blog post from the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank. "Official NOAA temperature stations produce corrupted data due to purposeful placement in man-made hot spots," the blog post said, referring to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Multiple social media posts continue to downplay or, in some cases, outright deny the existence of climate change despite overwhelming evidence supporting the scientific consensus it exists and is fueled by human activity.

One Facebook post shared Jan. 25 went as far as calling the concept a "fraud." Nick Adams, a conservative pundit, shared a post featuring a photo of himself with text superimposed on the image assailing climate change. "Global warming is the most significant fraud perpetrated on humanity this century," Adams said in the text. Adams included a caption with the photo that dismisses technology meant to combat climate change, saying, "no more windmills, no more solar panels and no more electric cars." As part of our series on Project 2025, we look at some instances where President Donald Trump and Project 2025 agree on climate change and fossil fuels — beginning with the rollback of climate...

In an hourlong address before the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23, President Donald Trump lashed out at those promoting “the green energy agenda.” Along the way, he made numerous false and misleading claims about renewable energy and climate change, many of which we’ve fact-checked... The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings this week on its effort to undo the legal foundation for its regulation of greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. In a major policy shift announced in late July, the Trump administration EPA said it would rescind the so-called “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to regulate such emissions, arguing that legal and scientific... Unfounded rumors linking an extreme weather event to human attempts at weather modification are again spreading on social media.

It is not plausible that available weather modification techniques caused or influenced the July 4 flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas. We explain what’s known about how the catastrophic L.A. wildfires started and the factors that scientists do — and don’t — think contributed. Protestors urging action on climate change marched in New York City on Sept. 22, 2014. (Getty)

We’re looking back at 10 of our recent fact-checks on climate change in light of the United Nations summit in New York this week. These fact-checks cover some of the key points of the climate change debate. 1. "Climate change is a hoax." - Pants on Fire. Earlier this year we looked at a detailed video from Louisiana congressional candidate Lenar Whitney, who repeated the assertion that climate change is a hoax. We found -- as we have before -- that there’s an overwhelming consensus among respected scientists that human-caused global warming is real.

In this fact-check, we looked at some of Whitney’s supporting evidence to argue that global warming is a hoax and found that it was weak. We rated her statement Pants on Fire. 2. The United States is the leading nation in the world "with the highest amount of doubt about the conventional wisdom of climate change." - Mostly True. In this aerial image, an aircraft, center, flies near a wildfire burning near Barrington Lake in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. (AP)

With Canada facing one of its worst wildfire seasons in history and smoke from the fires blanketing parts of the United States, some have questioned the notion that climate change is to blame. But climatologists and wildfire experts say there is no question about the link, which is supported by years of research. Extensive research has analyzed human-caused climate change’s effect on wildfires, and the consensus is that climate change is making wildfires more frequent, severe and long-lasting. Canada is no stranger to wildfires, but this year’s activity has been unusually destructive, experts say. As of June 8, the U.S.’ northern neighbor had 431 active fires burning, 235 of them considered to be out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Most of the active fires are in the province of Quebec.

The wildfires have burned more than 9 million acres in Canada so far this year, which is nearly 12 times the 10-year average, the Canadian government reported. At least 20,000 people in Canada have been displaced, and millions more in Canada and the U.S. have been affected by smoke polluting the air.

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