Posted on 26 April 2025 by Sue Bin Park

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.

Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change?

Climatologists made up only 0.1% of signatories to a 1998 petition denying human-caused climate change — the consensus among qualified scientists stands.

Anyone claiming they had a science degree could sign the petition without expertise in climate science. There is a strong consensus among actively publishing climate scientists on the existence of human-made climate change that has only grown since 1998.

The 31,487 signatures, many found to be fictional or unverifiable, would represent 0.25% of all U.S. science graduates. Holding a science degree does not indicate expertise in scientific fields outside one’s specialty.

The petition was accompanied by a manuscript deceptively formatted to resemble the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PNAS disavowed any affiliation with the manuscript and rejected its conclusions.

A 2021 review of 88,125 peer-reviewed climate change papers published since 2012 found that the climate change consensus exceeded 99%.

Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact

This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as this one.

Sources

Media Matters for USA 700 Club anchor touted global warming skeptics' petition reportedly signed by non-scientists, fictitious characters

HuffPost The 30,000 Global Warming Petition Is Easily-Debunked Propaganda

National Academy of Sciences Statement of the Council of the NAS Regarding Global Change Petition

The Seattle Times Jokers Add Fake Names To Warming Petition

Scientific American SKEPTICISM ABOUT SKEPTICS

DeSmog Oregon Petition

Scholars & Rogues Federal education data shows OISM’s climate change denying Petition Project actually a tiny minority

NASA Scientific Consensus

Environmental Research Letters Consensus revisited: quantifying scientific agreement on climate change and climate expertise among Earth scientists 10 years later

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all of our published fact briefs here.