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skepticalscience.bsky.social
Skeptical Science
@skepticalscience.bsky.social
6K followers 390 following 150 posts
Non-profit science education organization building public resilience against climate misinformation. More at http://sks.to/welcome
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skepticalscience.bsky.social
You can find the full list of all published fact briefs here sks.to/gfb
Screenshot of the full list of published fact briefs - sks.to/gfb
October 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
"Are humans responsible for climate change?" recently became fact brief #50 published in collaboration with @gigafactproject.bsky.social and this milestone gave @baerbelw.bsky.social a reason to write a short blog post about the current status of this project:
skepticalscience.com/50-fact-brie...
Composite image showing thumbnails of fact briefs #41 to 50 published in collaboration with Gigafact.
October 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our latest fact brief:

Q: "Is global warming actually happening?"

A: "Yes - Multiple indicators show Earth is warming rapidly. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-warming?...

All fact briefs sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of our latest fact brief: Q: "Is global warming actually happening?" A: "Yes - Multiple indicators show Earth is warming rapidly. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-warming
September 6, 2025 at 7:57 AM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our latest fact brief:

Q: "Are human CO2 emissions driving current global warming?"

A: "Yes - While many natural factors influence Earth’s climate, human emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide are driving today’s global warming. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-driver?u...

All fact briefs sks.to/gfb
Screenshot of our latest fact brief: Q: "Are human CO2 emissions driving current global warming?" A: "Yes - While many natural factors influence Earth’s climate, human emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide are driving today’s global warming. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-driver
July 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Since publication, some of the rebuttals have already been updated based on feedback received & 66 links leading to US-government sources in the references were replaced by permanently archived links to avoid link-rot for them if websites are moved or vanish.

All rebuttals: sks.to/sabin33-rebu...
Screenshot of the partial list of Sabin rebuttals showing the first 7 of them all related to solar energy myths.
June 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
On top of this collaboration with the Sabin team, German translations of all the rebuttals were created by a class at the Institute for translations at the University Heidelberg. These translations are all available via sks.to/sabin33-rebu...
Screenshot of a slide showing composite images of German fact brief and Sabin rebuttal translations.
June 28, 2025 at 5:32 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Creating the rebuttals based on Sabin's report proved to be more complex and timeconsuming than initially thought as it for example entailed reformatting and adapting the ~460 references to our needs and to add many of them to our glossary.
June 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
After 33 weeks of highlighting one of the rebuttals to solar, wind and EV myths on Tuesdays, this phase of our successful collaboration with the @sabincenter.bsky.social came to a close recently. We recap the project in this blog post:
sks.to/sabin33-reca...
Composite image showing screenshots of all 33 rebuttals to solar, wind and EV-myths published in collaboration with the Sabin Center of Climate Change Law.
June 28, 2025 at 5:14 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
June 21 is #showyourstripes day and we encourage everybody to join and start conversations about climate risks and solutions with the help of the icon graphic created by @edhawkins.org in 2018, inspired by a blanket crocheted by @elliehighwood.bsky.social

skepticalscience.com/show-your-st...
Warming stripes - global 1850 - 2024
June 20, 2025 at 2:14 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our latest fact brief:

Q: "Was 1934 the hottest year in the global record?"

A: "1934 was a particularly hot year in the contiguous United States, but not globally exceptional. Worldwide, 1934 was a relatively cooler year [...]"

sks.to/gfb-1934?utm...

All fact briefs sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of our latest fact brief: Q: "Was 1934 the hottest year in the global record?" A: "1934 was a particularly hot year in the contiguous United States, but not globally exceptional. Worldwide, 1934 was a relatively cooler year [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-1934
June 15, 2025 at 12:18 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
We also have a short fact brief to answer the question "Is the sun responsible for global warming?" with "No - Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, not solar variability, is responsible for the global warming observed since the Industrial Revolution."
skepticalscience.com/fact-brief-s...
Screenshot of fact brief answering the question "Is the sun responsible for global warming?" with "No - Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, not solar variability, is responsible for the global warming observed since the Industrial Revolution." https://sks.to/gfb-sun
June 13, 2025 at 1:47 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our latest fact brief:

Q: "Are CO2 measurements reliable?"

A: "Yes - Measurements of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are consistent, reliable, and globally verified across multiple independent systems. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-co2data?...

Full list of fact briefs sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of our latest fact brief: Q: "Are CO2 measurements reliable?" A: "Yes - Measurements of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are consistent, reliable, and globally verified across multiple independent systems. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-co2data
June 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
From the website:
wclivestream.com
Screenshot of the announcement for the Weather & Climate Livestream: SAVE AMERICA'S FORECASTS Whether it's tomorrow's temperatures or the sea level in fifty years, Americans need to plan for our futures. For generations, the US government has invested in the science that helps us do so, building one of the greatest meteorology and climate science communities in the world. In recent months, this community have been thwarted in our mission of serving the public due to substantial cuts and firings. These actions have already hurt our forecasts, endangering Americans as hurricane season approaches. Legally required assessments of the climate are being stopped, and far more drastic cuts are being proposed. But it's not too late to stop these cuts. Already, public pressure has helped to reopen shuttered weather data centers. To help keep this pressure building, meteorologists and climate scientists from across America want to fulfill our mission by sharing our science with you - so we're coming to your screens, speaking and answering your questions, for over 100 hours, in this science-filled, non-partisan event: The Weather & Climate Livestream From Wednesday, May 28th to Sunday, June 1st, join meteorologists and climate scientists from across the US as we share our work, and show you what makes it so vital. We will clarify the impact of the cuts on this research, and answer your questions about weather and climate research in the US. Information on how to watch is coming soon. If you are a scientist who wants to participate, please visit this speakers page to learn more.
May 19, 2025 at 6:54 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our latest fact brief:

Q: "Is climate change a net benefit for society?"

A: "No - Human-caused climate change has been a net detriment to society as measured by loss of life, economic harm and ecosystem damage. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-impacts?...

Full list of fact briefs: sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of our latest fact brief created in collaboration with @gigafactproject.bsky.social Q: "Is climate change a net benefit for society?" A: "No - Human-caused climate change has been a net detriment to society as measured by loss of life, economic harm and ecosystem damage. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-impacts
April 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Our team member @baerbelw.bsky.social will be participating in this year's @egu.eu meeting in Vienna. In addition to short oral presentations in 2 sessions, she picked several more sessions to fill up her schedule for the week quite nicely.

Details are in her blog post
sks.to/egu25-prolog...
Composite image illustrating the busy week Baerbel will have at the EGU meeting in Vienna. It shows the EGU website's banner, a screenshot from the program, sneak peeks of her two presentations and a view of her calendar for the week.
April 16, 2025 at 6:43 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Fact brief #30:

Q: "Is Mars warming?"

A: "Mars’ climate varies due to completely different reasons than Earth’s, and available data indicates no temperature trends comparable to Earth’s recent warming. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-mars?utm...

Full list of fact briefs: sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of fact brief #30: Q: "Is Mars warming?" A: "Mars’ climate varies due to completely different reasons than Earth’s, and available data indicates no temperature trends comparable to Earth’s recent warming. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-mars
April 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
In February 2025, @johnfocook.bsky.social gave two webinars for republicEN explaining the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. The 1st webinar focused on the history of this scientific consensus, the 2nd on the misinformation spread about it.

skepticalscience.com/webinars-con...
Cartoon featuring a cranky uncle archetype claiming there's no scientific consensus on climate change, and when confronted with evidence to the contrary then shifting his argument to say that science isn't done by consensus. Image showing nine pie-charts depicting nine consensus studies published between 2004 and 2021 100% - Oreskes 2004 97% - Doran 2009 97% - Anderegg 2010 97% - Cook 2013 91% - Verheggen 2014 93% - Stenhouse 2014 97% - Carlton 2015 98% - Myers 2021 99% - Lynas 2021
April 3, 2025 at 8:09 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Read more about Climate Fresk in this blog post written by @baerbelw.bsky.social after she participated in one such workshop and also completed the moderator training recently.
sks.to/climatefresk...
Image showing a snippet of an overall Climate fresk with 9 of the 42 cards at least partially visible (Image: Marylou Mauricio)
March 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Climate Fresk - a neat way to make the complexity of climate change less puzzling!

The purpose of "playing" Climate Fresk in groups of 5 to 7 people is to gain a proper understanding of the causes and effects of human-caused climate change.

skepticalscience.com/climate-fres...
Logo Climate Fresk showing a stylized red hand above 3 cards
March 22, 2025 at 2:54 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Fact brief #29:

Q: "Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming?"

A: "No - Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of that brought about by carbon dioxide. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-waste?ut...

All fact briefs: sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of Fact brief #29: Q: "Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming?" A: "No - Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of that brought about by carbon dioxide. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-waste
March 19, 2025 at 8:50 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Fact brief #28:

Q: "Is Greenland losing land ice?"

A: "Yes - Data from satellites and expeditions confirm Greenland has been losing land ice at an accelerating rate for decades. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-greenlan...

All fact briefs: sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of Fact brief #28: Q: "Is Greenland losing land ice?" A: "Yes - Data from satellites and expeditions confirm Greenland has been losing land ice at an accelerating rate for decades. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-greenland
March 16, 2025 at 8:54 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
To learn more about the scientific underpinnings of the game, please check out sks.to/crankyintro?... and the History of FLICC, the tell-tale techniques of science denial at sks.to/flicc-sks?ut...
From the Introduction to the game published in Plus Lucis: Figure 3: Sample of “trail” screens, explaining techniques of science denial. (a) Denial techniques. (b) Explanation of “Overriding suspicion”. (c) Explanation of “Overriding suspicion ctd. (d) Final screen of “Overriding suspicion” trail. From the Introduction to the game published in Plus Lucis: Figure 4: Examples of quiz questions and achievement notification. (a) True/false. (b) Fallacy examples. (c) Multiple fallacies. (d) Notification when a player levels up.
March 9, 2025 at 1:25 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
With the addition of Catalan, Croatian and Indonesian the Cranky Uncle game can now be played in 16 languages!

Thanks to the translator teams across the globe who make these translations possible!

@johnfocook.bsky.social @goodbeast.bsky.social

sks.to/crankyml?utm...

#activeinoculation
Cranky Uncle cartoon character standing with crossed arms in front of country flags depicting the 16 languages the Cranky Uncle game can now be played in.
March 9, 2025 at 1:13 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
Fact brief #27:

Q: "Are high CO2 levels harmless because they also occurred in the past?"

A: "No - While the Earth adapted to high carbon dioxide levels in the past, modern civilization cannot without major consequences. [...]"

sks.to/gfb-pastco2?...

All fact briefs: sks.to/gfb?utm-sour...
Screenshot of Fact brief #27: Q: "Are high CO2 levels harmless because they also occurred in the past?" A: "No - While the Earth adapted to high carbon dioxide levels in the past, modern civilization cannot without major consequences. [...]" https://sks.to/gfb-pastco2
March 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
skepticalscience.bsky.social
@gigafactproject.bsky.social offers a neat feature based on our fact briefs: a quiz to check your climate knowledge!

You can play it here:
gigafact.org/quiz/skeptic...
Illustrative image to take the Fact Brief Quiz
February 23, 2025 at 6:20 PM