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
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 | 31,000 dissenting scientists show there’s no expert consensus on climate change. |
| 2 | Argument structure | Premise 1: A large proportion of people with science degrees dissent against human-caused global warming. Premise 2: People with science degrees are experts on climate change. Conclusion: There is no expert agreement on human-caused global warming. |
| 3 | Inferential Intent |
Deduction |
| 4 | Validity | VALID |
| 4a | Hidden premises | NONE |
| 5 | Check premises | Premise 1 is false: magnified minority. 31,000 are 0.3% of the 10,000,000+ people with science degrees in the U.S. Premise 2 is false: fake experts. The term "scientists" covers a range of disciplines, many of which don't include expertise in climate science. 99.9% of the signatories in the Global Warming Petition Project have no expertise in climate science. |
| 6 | Status of claim | FALSE Both premises are false. |
| 7 | Summary of fallacies |
Magnified minority: While 31,000 science graduates sounds like a lot, it is only 0.3% of the over 10 million people with science degrees in the United States. Fake experts: 99.9% of the signatories in the Global Warming Petition Project have no expertise in climate science. |
How the OISM Petition Project casts doubt on the scientific consensus on climate change
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
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