Climate Action
7 Things That Make Climate Change Deniers Sound Unhinged
September 28, 2025
We live in an age where we have access to all the information that we could ever imagine, but not all of it is factual. Fake news is everywhere. It’s almost impossible to avoid fictitious information; 86% of people across the world report seeing inaccurate information on the internet as nearly 2/3 of the information we can encounter online is factually disputed.
With this tsunami of false information, we tend to believe the things that support our own ideologies. Although climate change is based on hard science and facts, climate change has become a political issue.
Today is Ask a Stupid Question Day, and to recognise it, here are 7 things climate deniers say that they don’t realize make them sound unhinged.
“Extreme weather events are just nature at work.”
Sure, nature has always thrown the occasional tantrum. But when record breaking tantrums start happening more frequently, maybe it’s not just nature anymore.
Enter: extreme event attribution. It’s the process of figuring out whether climate change helped fuel a particular disaster, like how you might figure out whether a fire was caused by lightning, or arson. With extreme weather events, there’s always a whole group of contributors: natural climate patterns, God, randomness, and now, human-caused global warming. Scientists use attribution studies to figure out just how much of the damage was caused by climate change versus natural variability. Spoiler: turns out based on facts that climate change is the big culprit.
Hurricanes are caused by warm oceans and an increase of water in the atmosphere; two things exacerbated by climate change. Human-caused emissions have also increased global temperatures. It’s not just a coincidence; it’s cause and effect. Just like more water evaporation leads to more droughts and drying vegetation causes more wildfires.
These impacts are not just anecdotal. In the 1980s, the U.S. would averaged a billion-dollar climate disaster every 4 months. Today? It’s every two months. And these statistics are after adjusting for inflation.
“First it was a new ice age coming, then it was global warming and now it is climate change, it’s baloney.”
The climate has always changed. That part is true. Earth’s history is full of warming and cooling cycles, often driven by natural spikes in greenhouse gases.
But what’s happening now isn’t part of some slow, ancient rhythm. It’s not nature doing its thing. It’s humans pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at a higher pace the planet has never seen before.
Increases in CO₂ levels have led to a 5-8 degree Celsius increase in temperature over the last thousand years, which has already triggered massive environmental upheaval including mass extinctions of ocean life forms.
Expert scientists predict that temperatures could rise a further 4°C in just over 50 years.
And no, scientists didn’t “change their minds”, their terminology evolved as the facts deepened. “Global warming” refers to the rise in Earth’s average temperature. “Climate change” is the broader term that captures long term changes, not just the warming, but all the ripple effects: rising seas, stronger storms, shifting weather patterns, disappearing glaciers. Same crisis, fuller picture.
“Carbon dioxide (CO2) is good for trees and plants.”
Ah yes, the “greenhouse gases are just plant vitamins” argument. It’s like saying waterboarding is good for you because you need to stay hydrated. It’s 100% true that plants need CO₂ to grow, just like we need oxygen. But too much of a good thing can tip the scales.
Yes, in controlled settings like greenhouses, higher levels of CO can sometimes help plants grow faster. However, this benefit is small compared to the much larger negative effects of global warming. Once temperatures rise beyond about 1°C (1.8°F), the damage from heat stress, droughts, and extreme weather begins to outweigh any potential gains. Since the global average temperature has already risen about 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, we’re already seeing those harmful impacts take hold.
Heatwaves can fry crop yields. Droughts starve fields. Floods wash away topsoil. Increased temperatures help pests thrive and eat through plants. And shifting weather patterns throw planting seasons out of whack.
So while CO₂ might give plants a little boost in theory, in practice it’s like giving someone a free gym membership while their house is on fire.
“Science hasn’t proved climate change is real, lots of scientists are unsure.”
This one’s a greatest hit in the climate denial playlist, but it’s wildly out of tune with reality.
The science is proven. There is overwhelming evidence that Earth is warming, and fast. More than 99.9% of actively publishing climate scientists agree that humans are the main cause, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels. That’s not just a vague consensus; it’s the strongest agreement you’ll find in any scientific field short of gravity existing. Or are we going to be told next that gravity is just a ‘belief’?
We’re not talking about one study or a handful of scientists in a lab somewhere. This is global. We’re seeing rising global temperatures, record-breaking levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, melting glaciers and ice sheets, rising seas, and increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather — and it’s being measured and confirmed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and every major national science academy on the planet.
Climate Change is real. End of. Whether you believe it or not.
“It’s God.”
Let’s get one thing straight: blaming climate change on “God’s will” is a spiritual cop-out.
Some Christians take Genesis 1:26 – where God gives man dominion over creation and all his creatures – as permission to use and abuse the Earth’s resources. But reading that verse in isolation is missing the message as a whole. Look one chapter ahead: Genesis 2:15 tells us we’re meant “to dress it and to keep” the Earth, not strip it bare for profit. Stewardship isn’t exploitation. It’s a calling. An act of worship.
And just as the Bible says to care for the Earth, Jesus was clear: Love God. Love your neighbor. (Matthew 22:36–40) That includes neighbors in the Global South who’ve done the least to cause climate change, yet suffer the most.
Pope Francis made it clear: climate change is a moral crisis rooted in human greed. He stood up to oil executives. He called for a “radical energy transition.” He challenged wealthy nations to take responsibility for their pollution. His message was simple but powerful: faith is not passive. It’s active.It demands courage.
The truth is, climate change isn’t a divine plan, rather it’s a human problem.
“Well whatever it is, it won’t impact me.”
Oh? Really?
Reality check: whether you realize it or not, it already is your problem.
The World Health Organization reports that 3.6 billion people are already living in areas highly vulnerable to climate change. And between now and 2050, the climate crisis is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths every single year from undernutrition, heat stress, malaria, and diarrhea alone. That’s not some distant future, it’s in your lifetime.
Not worried about your health? Cool; let’s talk about your job. By 2030, extreme heat could wipe out 3.8% of total working hours globally; that’s $2,400 billions of dollars in lost productivity. Meanwhile, the green economy is booming.
According to LinkedIn, green jobs are growing faster than any other sector, with 100 million new jobs expected by 2030. Green talent is being hired at a rate 54.6% higher than average. Translation? If you’re not paying attention to climate solutions, you’re missing opportunities.
Still not sweating? Let’s talk about housing. In the U.S. alone, over a quarter of homes are now at severe or extreme climate risk, putting $12.7 trillion worth of real estate in danger. Insurance costs are skyrocketing, homes are losing value, and entire neighborhoods are becoming unlivable.
So unless you’re immune to heat, disease, job markets, and real estate crashes; climate change will impact you.
“Nothing I do can make a difference so who cares?”
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of a global crisis. The headlines are overwhelming. The stakes are massive. And yeah, many corporations would love for you to believe your choices don’t matter. Because if you throw your hands up and say “Who cares?” Nothing changes and they keep making billions.
But the truth is, individual actions do matter, especially when they’re part of a bigger movement.
Take plastic. Reducing your plastic use doesn’t just help the planet, it also protects your health. The chemicals in plastic are endocrine disruptors, which is a fancy way of saying they mess with your hormones. These chemicals have been found in placentas, breast milk, blood, lungs, even the brain and they’re linked to strokes, heart attacks, and potentially Alzheimer’s. So cutting down on plastic is self-defense.
Switching to clean energy helps too. Solar and wind are already the cheapest energy sources for over two-thirds of the world’s population, and clean energy is the fastest-growing job sector globally. By 2030, it’s expected to create 14 million new jobs in everything from solar installation and electric vehicles to modernizing energy grids. So when you support renewables, you’re investing in a better economy and mitigating climate change.
Even something as simple as joining a local cleanup (you can find a cleanup near you on the Great Global Cleanup map) or buying secondhand clothes can make a dent. The fashion industry is one of the dirtiest on the planet, responsible for up to 8% of global emissions. Choosing thrift over fast fashion reduces waste, cuts emissions, and saves money. Win-win-win.
Change happens when millions of people take small actions that add up. And push governments and industries to act bigger and faster. Action is the antidote for hopelessness.Now, if you don’t believe us, believe Exxon! In a 2023 report, Exxon projected that fossil fuel emissions would lead to 0.20 degrees Celsius of global warming per decade, with a margin of error of 0.04 degrees. So now that you know what you can do, what will you do? Hopefully we’ve prepared you to tackle fake news on your own!
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