Climate change myths are everywhere. From comments at the dinner table to viral videos, fake news about the climate spreads fast. That’s why we’ve got the facts to help you shut down the most common myths.
1. It’s so cold today. I guess climate change isn’t real.
Guess again! This myth confuses climate with weather. Weather describes the day-to-day conditions in a specific place, like a cold day in Moncton or a rainy day in Vancouver. Climate describes weather patterns over time. We can still have some really cold days while the trend for the planet is an increasing number of warmer days.
2. The climate is always changing. This isn’t any different.
Yes, the Earth’s climate has changed before, but not usually this fast. Natural changes in the climate happened over thousands or even millions of years. The warming we’re seeing today is happening in just a few decades. The planet is now heating up around 10 times faster than it does after an Ice Age. And that’s just not natural!
3. Who, me? (Humans aren’t causing the climate to change.)
Hundreds of leading climate scientists from around the world have found that humans are behind almost all the warming over the past 200 years. Most of it comes from the burning of coal, oil, and gas for energy. This releases carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, into the air. When scientists compare rising carbon dioxide levels with rising temperatures, the link is clear.
4. Even scientists don’t agree.
Actually, they do. More than 99% of climate scientists agree that humans are now causing the climate to change.
Kate Marvel, a NASA climate scientist, says, “We are more sure that greenhouse gasses are causing climate change than we are that smoking causes cancer.”
5. A few more degrees aren’t a big deal.
What a difference a degree makes! Average temperatures are now about 1.1 °C higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution. That extra degree has melted Arctic ice, raised sea levels, and made storms, wildfires, and droughts more intense. People and animals are being forced from their homes. The crops we need for food are at risk. Even a fraction of a degree can affect millions of lives.
6. Animals and plants can just adapt to all these changes.
Some can, but not all. Climate change is transforming habitats faster than many species can handle. Not all of them will be able to move away or change their habits in time. With one million species at risk of extinction already, why put nature under any more stress?
7. Canada doesn’t pollute that much, so it’s not our problem to fix.
Canada is responsible for about 1.4% of the world’s greenhouse gas pollution. It’s a small number that still put us among the world’s top twelve greenhouse gas polluters in 2021. We produce more greenhouse gas pollution per person than just about any other country, mainly because we extract, refine, and export so much fossil fuel.
Our past pollution will be warming the planet for centuries to come. Rich countries, including Canada, the United States, and many in western Europe, make up only 12% of the world’s population but are responsible for half of the greenhouse gas pollution created over the past 170 years. We have a responsibility to cut that pollution and help the poorer countries feeling the worst impacts of climate change, who have often contributed the least to the problem.
8. Climate change is a future problem for faraway places, not Canada.
Climate change is already here, and people in Canada are feeling it. They may be sweating through more heat in the summer, sheltering from wilder storms, smelling wildfire smoke, or even leaving their homes because of wildfires or flooding. In fact, as Canada loses snow and sea ice, it’s warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. This isn’t someone else’s problem. It’s ours, too.
9. If every person just changed how they live, we could fix this.
Lifestyle changes are great. They cut greenhouse gas pollution and send a message to businesses that people care about climate change.
But the climate crisis is an emergency. We need big changes to happen fast, like moving whole countries that run on fossil fuels onto renewable energy as soon as possible. Governments around the world will need to act together to make laws and policies that speed the shift.
10. It’s too late to act.
No way! In 2010, the world was on track to warm up to 4.8 °C in the future. Then, Canada and almost 200 other countries signed a historic agreement in Paris in 2015. They pledged to try to limit global warming to 1.5 °C and set targets to lower their greenhouse gas pollution. The world is now on track to warm by 2.1 to 2.8 °C.
That’s still way too high, but it proves that change is possible and it is happening. We can’t quit the fossil fuels that power our societies overnight. But solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources are cheaper than ever and expanding around the world.
Don’t let myths distract from the truth. Climate change is real, it’s urgent, and it’s caused by us. But it’s also something we can act on now for a better future for all.
Ready to bust more myths? Read the other articles in our mythbusting series:
