Numbers may not lie, but humans certainly do.
A recent post from TikToker Roshan Salgado D'Arcy (@all_about_climate), a Ph.D. student with degrees in earth and climate science and a periodic TCD contributor, exemplified how climate deniers skew data to support their claims and mislead the public.
@all_about_climate Misleading graph debunked! Has the planet really been getting cooler? #climatescience #climate #climatechange #climatecrisis #globalwarming #debunked #fyp #factcheck #science #explained #geology #planetearth #myth #misinformation #savetheplanet #climateaction ♬ original sound - Rosh
His video began with an overlay of Ian Plimer, a former professor of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne, speaking at the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies.
"We have been cooling down for the last 4,000 years. … It's all about when you start the measurements," he said as a graph of interglacial temperatures from the last 10,000 years popped up on the screen.
"If you start taking measurements from 1850 in the Industrial Revolution, we have been warming. If you take measurements from the medieval warming, we've been cooling."
D'Arcy noted that "a lot of people misuse this graph," adding that it includes information from one ice core in Greenland, which is not an accurate representation of the entire planet.
The chart also appears to show temperatures trending downward and that modern-day temperatures are far below what they used to be thousands of years ago.
However, the X-axis is measured in years before 1950, the standard date used in geology as the present day, and only includes statistics as recent as 1855, omitting the rapidly rising temperatures we've experienced in the last century.
D'Arcy then directed viewers to a data set with a more accurate portrayal of the climate crisis.
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"You can clearly see that modern temperatures are well above everything in the last few thousands of years," he said.
Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirms that claim, showing that global temperatures have risen 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1850. However, rates of warming since 1982 have more than tripled to 0.36 degrees per decade.
The planet's overheating has culminated in record-breaking heat worldwide, leading to more frequent and severe extreme weather events that have devastated communities.
"I've seen similar presentations before and just knew something was wrong with what was said," one person commented.
"I guarantee 10 seconds looking at the old dude's investment portfolio would explain why he is lying about this … " another said about Plimer.
"Spot on! … he was on the board of Queensland Coal Investments," D'Arcy responded.
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