Basic Climate Myths

Myth 1. Atmospheric CO2 drives climate change

  • It was as warm, if not warmer, 1000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period (800-1400 AD and 140 ppm CO2 ago) as today.
  • Coming out of the Little Ice Age, it’s been warming since 1650… 200 years before the Industrial Revolution began.
  • Last time CO2 was as high as the present, sea level was 20 feet higher.

Myth 2. CO2 is pollution

  • CO2 is plant food.
  • Plants grow better with higher CO2.
  • NASA satellite photos show the Earth is greener today than 40 years ago.
  • Research shows slight warming and higher CO2 over past few decades has been good for crop yields.
  • Feeding human depends on higher crop yields.

Myth 3. The perfect climate is at 350 ppm CO2

  • How would anyone know that?
  • We hit 350 ppm in the late 1980s… what was so perfect about the weather/climate back then?
  • Climategate reveled that the 2C target was arbitrary and not scientific.
  • The 350 ppm claim is arbitrary and not scientific.

Myth 4. Bad weather and disasters are manmade

  • There is no trend of increasing storms or increasingly bad weather.
  • There is no trend of increasing weather damage when adjusted for GDP/development in risky areas.
  • It is not scientifically possible to link bad weather with changes in CO2.
  • A warmer planet should be a less stormy planet.
  • We observe more bad weather now because we have better technology, more reporting and heightened awareness/anxiety/hype.

Myth 5. Climate science is a genuine science

  • Unvalidated climate models are not science. Science requires validation.
  • No climate model has predicted anything…. except more warming than actually occurred.
  • All climate models completely missed the 1998-2016 ‘pause.’
  • Science is not about consensus… so, for example, there is no such thing as a 97% consensus on climate science.
  • There really is no such thing as ‘climate science.’

Myth 6. Climate scientists are honest and nonpartisan

  • Climategate revealed professional skullduggery among climate scientists including censorship of opponents and other dirty tricks.
  • ‘Climate scientists’ are often involved in partisan politics.
  • ‘Climate scientists’ rely on government grants.
  • The US Congress investigated green groups for being funded by Communist China to wreck the US via climate regulation.