PROPERLY, A MYTH is a “traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon” (Merriam-Webster). But we rarely use that definition today. Most of us use myth with its secondary definition: “an unfounded or false notion.” And that is how it is used in an article in the September 18, 2019, edition of Teen Vogue.
Teen Vogue was a US print magazine launched in 2003 as a sister publication to Vogue. It was targeted at teenage girls and included stories about fashion and celebrities and eventually expanded its focus to include politics and current affairs. With the December 5, 2017, issue, Teen Vogue ceased its print edition and continued as an online-only publication. (Edited liberally from Wikipedia.)
Titled “5 Climate Change Myths Debunked,” author Mark Maslin states that the warming we’re witnessing around the planet is not part of a natural cycle:
“The science of climate change is more than 150 years old and it is probably the most-tested area of modern science. However, the energy industry, political lobbyists, and others have spent the last 30 years sowing doubt about the science where none really exists. The latest estimate is that the world’s five largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend about $200 million each year on lobbying to control, delay, or block binding, climate-motivated policy.
This organized and orchestrated climate change science denial has contributed to the lack of progress in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to the point that we are facing a global climate emergency. And when climate change deniers use certain myths—at best fake news and at worse straight lies—to undermine the science of climate change, ordinary people can find it hard to see through the fog. Here are five commonly used myths and the real science that debunks them.”
Here are the five myths the author addresses:
1. Climate change is just part of the natural cycle.
2. Changes are due to sunspots/galactic cosmic rays.
3. CO2 is a small part of the atmosphere — it can’t have a large heating effect.
4. Scientists manipulate all data sets to show a warming trend.
5. Climate models are unreliable and too sensitive to CO2.
I have heard each of these in conversation with otherwise intelligent people. No matter how many articles are written and how many facts are amassed to disprove these myths, I think they are with us until the end of the world.
To read the article in its entirety, click HERE.
The five largest publicly-owned oil and gas companies spend about $200 million each year lobbying to control, delay, or block binding, climate-motivated policy. Click To Tweet
