Six myths about climate change

With climate change appearing in the media so often, there are a number of conflicting claims around what it is and the best way to tackle it. This guide will take you through some of the most common myths surrounding climate change and explain why they’re untrue.

You can find more information about the origins of these myths, or the individuals and organisations that have put them forward, in the Useful resources at the end of this guide.

‘The earth’s climate is always changing - humans have little or no impact’

Put forward by: 

• physicist and climate change skeptic, Richard Lindzen
• psychologist and public speaker, Jordan Peterson

It’s true that the earth’s climate has changed a lot over the past 4.5 billion years. But the change scientists are currently seeing is extremely rapid. According to research carried out by NASA, the planet's average surface temperature has risen about 0.9°C since the late 19th century, with most of the warming occurring in the past 35 years. The six warmest years on record have all taken place since 2014. 

These are the kind of changes that would normally happen over hundreds of thousands of years. They are now happening in decades. They cannot be explained by the normal cycles of heating and cooling that the earth naturally undergoes.

Surveys of peer-reviewed scientific literature show a 97% consensus that humans are causing global warming. There is undeniable evidence that the planet’s dramatic increase in temperature is linked to an increase in CO2 emissions and other gases since the industrial revolution. At the end of this guide, you’ll find some resources with more information on this.

‘Global warming isn’t real because it was cold today’

Put forward by: 

• President Donald Trump
• The Daily Mail
• climate change denial website, ‘CO2 Science’

To understand why this isn’t true, we need to look at the difference between climate and weather. Weather refers to day-to-day, local conditions, which can vary a lot. Climate is the long-term average of weather for a particular area. If someone points out that it’s sunny today in London, they’re referring to the weather; if they point out that London typically has warm and dry summers, however, they’re referring to the climate. Therefore, just because it is cold where you are on a given day, this does not mean that the overall average - the climate - hasn’t changed. 

Another thing to consider is that the warming of the planet’s surface has many different effects on our climate; it doesn’t just mean more heatwaves and droughts.

If the planet’s surface is warmer, there will be more evaporation, and therefore greater rain and snowfall in some areas. Meteorological records show that we’ve had more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods, since 1980.. A report by climate experts from the American Geophysical Union in 2019 stated that in the previous two years, around 95% of extreme weather events could be linked to human-caused climate change.

‘Animals should adapt to climate change’

Put forward by: 

• US conservative think tank, Hudson Institute

We won’t claim to take on Darwin here: animals do and will adapt to their environments. However, the extreme pace at which climate change is occurring means that, in many cases, this will be impossible. 

One example of this is coral reefs. According to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 70-90% of all coral reefs are expected to die if ocean temperatures rise just 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The millions of species that rely on coral reefs cannot possibly adapt to such a dramatic change to their environment.

‘Renewable energy is too expensive’

Put forward by: 

• President Donald Trump
• President George W. Bush
• political scientist and writer, Bjørn Lomborg

It’s easy to assume that keeping our current coal, oil, and natural gas plants would be cheaper than building new renewable sources of energy. But analysis by the Carbon Tracker Initiative found renewable power was a cheaper option than building new coal plants in all large markets, and was expected to cost less than electricity from existing coal plants by 2030 at the latest.

Also, the burning of fossil fuels can lead to many other costsmedical bills due to increased air pollution, cleaning up oil spills, repairing damage caused by extreme weather conditions - these are all very costly for individuals, businesses, and governments. A 2013 report published by the International Monetary Fund found that the social cost of fossil fuels was 25 USD per tonne of CO2 emitted. That amounts to 1.4 trillion USD spent globally per year. 

Meanwhile, the cost of renewable energy is falling fast (the cost of solar energy has already fallen by 26%, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency) as scientists find more efficient ways of harnessing it.

‘Human CO2 emissions are a tiny percentage of CO2 emissions’

Put forward by: 

• blogger and climate change skeptic, Jeff Id

It is true that man-made CO2 emissions are much smaller than natural emissions. The oceans alone naturally release about 332 gigatonnes of CO2 per year, whilst humans emit around 29 gigatonnes. But like many of these myths, this bit of truth has been misrepresented.

Just as our oceans and vegetation naturally emit CO2, they also have processes which absorb it, meaning that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere should stay balanced. When people quote the amount of CO2 released naturally, without mentioning the amount that is naturally absorbed (788 gigatonnes per year by vegetation and oceans combined), they are giving information that is highly misleading. Humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, without taking any away. Our emissions are upsetting the natural balance of the carbon cycle, leading to unprecedented levels of CO2 in our atmosphere.

‘We’re helping plants by producing carbon dioxide ’

Put forward by: 

• physicist and climate change skeptic, Richard Lindzen
• political scientist and writer, Bjørn Lomborg

It’s true that CO2 is an important part of our natural ecosystem, and plants do need it to survive. However, there is a limit to how much plants can absorb. 

Humans are producing CO2 at unprecedented levels through the burning of fossil fuels. And, to make matters worse, we’re also chopping down trees that would help absorb the CO2 from the atmosphere. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there hasn’t been this level of CO2 in the atmosphere for 800,000 years. We are producing much more CO2 than the levels plants need. Far from helping them, it is actually harming them, by changing the climate conditions that they need to survive.

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