The science of climate change is not really the question at hand anymore. Of course, there is always more to learn, but that highly accelerated climate change is real and that humans are the main cause of that are no longer questionable facts to the large majority of the scientific community. What is questionable is whether or not we will address the issue, or to what degree we will address it, and how much our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, etc. will have to pay the price for our late and limited action.

Of course, outside of the scientific community, many climate change deniers and so-called “skeptics” continue to trick the media and act as if those fundamental issues of climate science are not resolved. As a concise response (with relevant links) to some of the most popular claims put forth by the anti-science climate change deniers, here is a list of 7 myths regarding climate change science.

1) It’s cold outside! Climate change is nonsense.
Well, it may be cold outside, but the important thing to remember right now is that it is Winter and even if we get a bit of exceptionally cold weather, that is how weather is. Weather is quite variable, even while the climate is changing, and we can still expect to see record lows from time to time. Research shows, however, that the record lows are increasingly few and far between and half as common now as record highs:

Additionally, although it may be exceptionally cold in some places in the world, globally it has actually been much warmer than average this winter.

2) It’s snowing outside! So much for “global warming”!
Actually, more snow is due to more moisture in the atmosphere, which,… is due to climate change.

Nothing new to climate scientists that we should see increasingly strange weather as the climate changes. Climate change is about more than warmer weather. It is about changes to the whole system and what we are used to.

The “Blizzard of 2009″ a ‘global warming type’ of record snowfall — or an opportunity for the media to blow the extreme weather story (again)?”

Now, also, don’t forget, it’s not snowing in Canada, where it should be for the Winter Olympics, because it’s too warm!

3) “Hockey Stick” Graph is a Big Trick.
Climate science deniers continually want to say that Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” graph is bogus, but the data behind it have continually been backed up scientifically, including by the National Academy of Sciences.

The bottom line is: this graph, scary as it may be, is based on sound science.

Rather than being heroes for identifying that the hockey stick graph is a fake (something dozens, if not hundreds, of expert scientists supposedly couldn’t do), the people criticizing the hockey stick graph have actually been uncovered as anti-science disinformers.

4) Global Cooling is What We Should Be Expecting, Not Global Warming.
Climate science deniers continually cite Mojib Latif as publishing research that claims something along those lines. But Dr. Latif, himself, has made it clear that his work does not disprove or go against climate change. Beyond making it clear that his work does not go against “global warming”, he has written a book titled Climate Change: The Point of No Return (The Sustainability Project) and he has said (in an NPR interview), “If my name was not Mojib Latif, my name would be global warming. So I really believe in global warming.” The bottom line: minor cooling within global warming or climate change may occur, but it is just as likely that we will see warming, according to Latif, and, in the long run, climate change is definitely about global warming.

5) Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is always in the atmosphere and is a good thing.
Yes, CO2 is always in the atmosphere, but not at this level! And too much of anything can be bad. Too much water can kill you. Similarly, too much CO2 doesn’t help life on Earth but hurts it.

6) Antarctica is cooling.
Guess what, Antarctica, which should be cooling despite “global warming”, is actually warming as well! Not what scientists were expecting or hoping to find.

7) Climate Scientists are Like Mobsters Trying to Take Over the World Through Illegal Actions behind Closed Doors — “Climategate”
I almost didn’t even put this on the list, because it is so ridiculous. Ridiculous as it may be, though, it got a ton of attention, so here it is.

In the biggest climate science attack of late, people claimed that the emails of climate scientists that criminals hacked proved that climate science was full of crap, but in the end we found out that just wasn’t the case! Further research into the subject, not cherry-picked quotes taken out of context by the criminals, showed that the science is as strong as ever.

Source: GO Media - Written by Zachary Shahan - Image Credit: kevindooley via flickr under a CC license