Skeptical Science (occasionally abbreviated SkS) is a climate science blog and information resource created in 2007 by Australian former cartoonist and web developer, John Cook, who received a PhD degree in cognitive science in 2016. In addition to publishing articles on current events relating to climate science and climate policy, the site maintains a database of articles analyzing the merit of arguments put forth by those who oppose the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change.

Concept

John Cook CSICon 2018 Taking On Fake News About Climate Change

After reading a 2007 speech by US Senator Jim Inhofe, who maintains that global warming is a hoax, John Cook created Skeptical Science as an internet resource to counter common arguments by

climate change deniers Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or th ...

. The site hosts various articles addressing the merit of common objections to the

scientific consensus Scientific consensus is the generally held judgment, position, and opinion of the majority or the supermajority of scientists in a particular field of study at any particular time. Consensus is achieved through scholarly communication at confe ...

on global warming, such as the claim that solar activity (rather than

greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...

es) is responsible for most 20th and 21st century global warming, or that global warming is natural and/or not harmful to humans. Each article, referred to as an "argument", presents a quotation from a prominent figure who made a direct claim regarding global warming, and follows with a summary of "what the science says". Rather than fully qualifying each claim, the site focuses on challenging it by citing counterexamples for why it is incorrect, and structuring the examples into a rebuttal of the original claim. The site primarily gains the content for these articles from peer reviewed scientific papers. Many articles have been translated into other languages, and are split into up to three levels of technical depth. The Skeptical Science home page also features blog posts by regular and guest contributors, which may be new rebuttals of a certain argument or simply the blogger's view on a relevant climate news item. Like the rebuttals, the blog entries tend to hold a consistent tone that the scientific opinion on

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human im ...

global warming is generally accurate. In 2010, along with software development company Shine Technologies, Skeptical Science launched a free smartphone application that includes condensed summaries of most rebuttals featured on the site.

Projects

In addition to uncategorized blog posts, the site has published many multi-week features that serve to give a more in-depth analysis of a particular topic. Topics which have received special attention include a feature describing "climate 'myths" promoted by many US politicians, a feature examining the accuracy of past predictions made by scientists studying global warming, as well as individual features to evaluate the claims made by the most prominent individuals who reject evidence that supports human-caused global warming, including

Richard Lindzen Richard Siegmund Lindzen (born February 8, 1940) is an American atmospheric physicist known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and ...

, John Christy, and

Christopher Monckton Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (born 14 February 1952) is a British public speaker and hereditary peer. He is known for his work as a journalist, Conservative political advisor, UKIP political candidate, and fo ...

. In 2010, a comprehensive report called ''The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism'' was made available from Skeptical Science. Written by Cook and other authors, the report draws from various rebuttals published and summarizes the evidence for global warming and the flaws in many of the objections to the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...

. In May 2013, Cook and other contributors published a paper in '' Environmental Research Letters'' (''ERL'') examining the scientific consensus on global warming in peer reviewed papers published between 1991–2011. The paper was widely cited across hundreds of newspapers, magazines, blog posts, and scientific papers. It also ranked as the 11th most-discussed scientific paper of 2013. The paper was awarded the 'Best article of 2013' prize by the editorial board of ''ERL''. In 2013, Skeptical Science established a sister website – The Consensus Project. This website promoted public awareness of the reported high degree of scientific consensus around global warming, in contrast with a public perception of still widespread debate; this has been called the Consensus Gap, which is also delineated in the Gateway Belief Model. The website was created pro-bono by design and advertising firm SJI Associates. In 2013, Skeptical Science released a ' software widget' to highlight the accumulation of heat within the earth's climate systems. The widget counts up the added heat from a user definable start date using several different real-world scales of measurement –

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

bombs of equivalent heat, Hurricane Sandy's, 6.0 Richter scale earthquakes, '

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

's full of dynamite or millions of lightning bolts. An associated website, 4hiroshimas.info, provides background information including references to the scientific papers the count is based on. In 2015, Skeptical Science launched a massive open online course on EdX called "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial".

Reception and motivation

Skeptical Science has become a resource about climate change, and praised for its straightforwardness. Marine biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg has described it as "the most prominent knowledge-based website dealing with climate change in the world", and '' The Washington Post'' has praised it as the "most prominent and detailed" website to counter arguments by

global warming deniers Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...

. In September 2011, the site won the 2011 Eureka Prize from the Australian Museum in the category of Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge. Cook is trained as a solar physicist and says he is motivated by his

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

beliefs. He is one of a number of Christians publicly arguing for scientific findings on anthropogenic global warming, and is an evangelical Christian.

Funding

Skeptical Science is not affiliated with any political, business, or charitable entities. The site does not contain banner ads and is funded entirely by Cook himself In November 2020, Skeptical Science was registered as a nonprofit organization, and officially recognized in March 2021 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, tax-exempt organization by the IRS.

References

External links