Social media is flooded with inaccurate or misleading information about climate change.
Experts consider this a problem, because if people believe these lies, actions to combat climate change could be delayed.
The BBC analyzes five false claims that are frequently repeated on the internet.
1. “Climate change is not real”
A Spanish-language video on TikTok with thousands of views wrongly suggests that human-caused climate change is not real.
And, like this one, numerous publications in different languages are spread on social networks.
However, the scientific evidence says something different.
The average global temperature on Earth has already increased by 1.1°C since the end of the 19th century.
Scientists conclusively link it to the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
These gases, such as carbon dioxide or methane, retain additional energy in the Earth’s atmosphere and warm the planet.
Global warming is already having wide-ranging consequences: oceans are warming and sea levels are rising, some species are disappearing, and food supplies are at risk.
In addition, extreme weather events, such as heat waves, are more frequent and intense.
“These changes are not abstract concepts,” says Izidine Pinto, a Mozambican climate scientist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
“They are tangible, observable changes that have been widely studied and documented by climate scientists.”
2. “Current changes in climate are natural”
This tweet, in French, wrongly describes global warming as a “natural” process over which humans have little or no influence.
This statement is often made by social media users who question the role of humans in climate change.
To support it, they often say that, in the history of our planet, there have been multiple cycles of warming and cooling.
The existence of such cycles is well documented, but they were driven primarily by natural causes, such as changes in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
And scientists have conclusively shown that without humans burning fossil fuels, the current warming trend would not have occurred.
The pace at which these changes are occurring is also significant.
The last time the Earth experienced a major change in its average temperature, it rose 5°C over a period of several thousand years.
But the current rate of warming is significantly faster: in about 150 years the planet has already warmed by 1.1°C.
And scientists say that, based on current climate agreements, temperature increases could reach 2.5°C by the end of the century.
3. “Climate change is not our problem”
This Nigerian user posted on X – formerly Twitter – that climate change is not an African problem.
It’s a common statement among social media users in developing countries, who sometimes describe climate change as a “Western problem” with little relevance to their daily lives.
Others wrongly suggest that climate action is part of a “plot” by richer nations to impede the growth of emerging economies.
Prosperous countries – such as the United States, the United Kingdom, China or the European Union – have, in fact, been responsible for most of the historical greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.
But climate change knows no borders and its consequences are already being felt around the world, especially in low-income countries, many of which lack the resources to adequately prepare.
In recent months, several Middle Eastern nations (Syria, Iraq, Iran) have been affected by drought, and others in East Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia) have suffered severe flooding.
“Climate change is a global problem, but with unequal impacts,” says Farhana Sultana, from Syracuse University, in the United States. She claims that “it disproportionately affects communities in developing countries that contributed least to creating the problem.”
This has led some climate activists to call on richer nations to take the lead in funding actions to prevent further changes to the climate (mitigation) and help others deal with the damage already caused (adaptation).
“All countries must devote their greatest efforts to both mitigation and adaptation, and major emitters must do more to reduce anything that fuels further climate deterioration,” says Sultana.
4. “Sea level is not rising”
This tweet, written in Portuguese, falsely suggests that sea levels “remain the same” despite global warming.
Similar claims are often published alongside photographs of coastal areas to illustrate how no rise in sea level is actually visible to the naked eye.
As the planet warms, ice trapped in glaciers and ice sheets has begun to melt, increasing the total amount of water in the ocean.
In addition to that, water expands when heated and NASA assures that the oceans have already absorbed 90% of the planet’s warming. Thus, as temperatures increased, the oceans also expanded.
It is estimated that in the last 100 years global sea level has already risen between 160 and 210 mm.
This process is accelerating and is already having an impact: rising sea levels accelerate coastal erosion and facilitate flooding.
Scientists suggest that if rapid action is not taken, sea levels could rise by up to 2 meters by the end of 2100.
This means that millions of people currently living in coastal areas could soon see their areas flooded or even underwater.
“The manifestation of this reality is evident in many coastal communities in West Africa,” says Ayoola Apolola, a Nigerian doctoral student researching climate-induced extreme sea level rise.
He cites as an example the town of Ilaje, in southwestern Nigeria, where some reports indicate that “more than half the population has been displaced” by rising sea levels.
5. “Climate change benefits us”
In countries exposed to an extremely cold climate, the idea of a warmer planet may seem attractive at first glance.
On Facebook, a user in Russia suggested, for example, that warmer weather in autumn is a positive result of global warming.
The problem is that any marginal benefits that may result from climate change are dwarfed by its broader impact on the entire planet.
The UN estimates that if the average global temperature rises 1.5°C by the end of the century, climate change could cost the world $54 billion.
The impact of those changes would be widespread.
Middle Eastern countries could see agricultural lands turn into deserts. Pacific island nations could disappear under rising sea levels. And African states could be hit by food shortages.
And even in colder countries, like Russia, forest fires are becoming more frequent as the climate becomes hotter and drier.
“The fact is that we have observed many extreme events around the world,” says Trang Duong, an assistant professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
“Heat waves occurred in North America, Europe and China in July 2023. More frequent and intense flooding is also occurring around the world. “All these disasters cause catastrophic economic losses and human lives.”
Keep reading:
* Conqueror Genghis Khan killed so many people that “the planet cooled,” new study says
* Alert: Swiss glaciers shrank by 10% in just two years
* NASA warns that higher temperatures will be recorded in 2024 than those experienced in 2023
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