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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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Myth Deconstruction - Volcano (EN)

Reference

Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors
Cook, J., Ellerton, P., & Kinkead, D. (2018). Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors. Environmental Research Letters, 13(2), 024018. Link to PDF & Link to Supplement

Step-by-step deconstruction

The table below is inspired by the simplified supplement and may differ slightly from what is shown in the GIF.  This is mostly due to make the text fit into the available space which made it necessary to reword some of it.

1 Identify claim Volcanoes produce more CO2 than humans.
2 Argument structure Premise 1: Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans.
Conclusion: Volcanoes have a larger influence on climate change than humans.
3 Inferential Intent

Deduction

4 Validity VALID
4a Hidden premises NONE
5 Check premises Premise 1 is false: misrepresentation. Humans emit over 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes.
6 Status of claim FALSE
The argument is made valid but the premise is false.
7 Summary of fallacies Misrepresentation: It is false to say volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans, given that humans emit over 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes.

Related material

Do volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans?

Blog post with background information about the myth deconstructions: Myth deconstructions as animated gifs

To learn more about the fallacies used in the myth deconstructions: A history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial


Other versions

Printable Version | Back to Graphics by Skeptical Science


Creative Commons License Skeptical Science Graphics by Skeptical Science is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


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