Fact or fiction- and does matter?

How do you know what you think you know is true? From the current US president Barack Obama stating that ‘no challenge poses a greater threat to our children, our planet, and future generations than climate change’, to current US presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeting that it’s a Chinese hoax. Or from a national newspaper in the UK being criticised by world leading scientists for reporting that ‘appears designed systematically to undermine the credibility of climate science’ to leaked emails from a top British research institute some claim showed they falsified climate science. It can be hard to know what to believe when it comes to climate change.

It’s a topic that’s receiving an increasing amount of attention from scientists, politicians and the general public- and therefore the media. However, mainstream media statements are often made without being fully backed up with evidence, and even when evidence is presented it is frequently misreported or misinterpreted. This has led to a number of ideas about climate change becoming widely accepted despite a lack of support from science. When these issues are contentious, it isn’t helped by the efforts of people who disagree with the scientific consensus, and wish to bring it into disrepute.

With issues like climate change we can't afford to be naive. The best evidence suggests that we need to take dramatic action in the next decade, and that people who are more knowledgeable about the causes of climate change are more concerned and likely to take action. Educating ourselves about climate change is therefore the first step towards finding a solution to this epic challenge. However, even the most sceptical among us don’t have time to fact check everything presented to us by the media and politicians, or even friends, family and colleagues. In this blog I’ll take a look at some current media stories about climate change and what published, peer reviewed scientific papers reveal about their accuracy. So all you have to do is read! I’d love to hear your feedback, so please get in touch with questions, comments or suggestions as to what I should tackle. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy what’s coming up!

Image 1: Probably a myth...