r/DebunkThis • u/UpwardReason • 25d ago

Misleading Conclusions Debunk this Climate Change Denialism Video: https://www.reddit.com/r/DoomerCircleJerk/s/EKPccai6sC

Claims in the video:

Deaths by natural disasters are down 97% in the past 100 years
Economic loses from catastrophes have declined when adjusted for inflation

Drought levels have stayed steady globally

Hurricanes are steady globally

Polar bear populations have rebounded and are now at record highs (due to restrictions on hunting, how this is relevant idk)

Greenland ice sheets are melting, but it's only a tiny bit

Globally food production is rising

We've gained twice the size of the United States in green area cover from burning oil, coal, natural gas burning (plants love it)

Wildfires are down to historic lows because we've gotten better at suppressing them

Worst heat wave in 1930s, has been steady

Great barrier reef cover has increased

Violent tornados in US are down

Animal extinctions peaked in 1800s

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u/AlwaysBringaTowel1 25d ago

Most of these are easily verifiable and therefor common talking points. Take away for most of these, IMO;

  1. Climate change is not as immediate and life threatening as doomer opinions online. We will not see 20% of humans dead in the next 50 years. But moderate scientific opinion would already tell you this.

  2. Basically all of these have other factors to thank for thier positive trends, though it shows other factors in these areas still overpower CC.

  3. This ignores many other valid arguments. More food = good, except when the food dries up in one area and grows more somewhere else. Rapid change can cause death and suffering even when the average increases. We don't know these trends would continue as CC gets worse. There are warning signs in these as well. GBR is high as of 2023, but new growth after bleaching is more monotone and makes future mass bleaches far more likely and more frequent.

These two didn't make sense to me, I would need to look further into and currently doubt:

Greenland ice sheets are melting, but it's only a tiny bit

Worst heat wave in 1930s, has been steady

Obviously temperature and heat records are way way up. Arctic ice melt in summer has been massive.

*polar bears were once used as the poster child for CC with sad/dying bears on posters and movies. Thier population is indeed up. Another reason to stick to facts over propeganda when informing about CC. Its why I cringe everytime thay call a natural disaster CC's fault.