Fact brief – Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change?
2025-04-26T06:23:09Z
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.
Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific co…
Fact brief – Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change?
Posted on 26 April 2025 by Sue Bin Park
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.
Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change?
Climatologists made up only 0.1% of signatories to a 1998 petition denying human-caused climate change — the consensus among qualified scientists stands.
Anyone claiming they had a science degree could sign the petition without expertise in climate science. There is a strong consensus among actively publishing climate scientists on the existence of human-made climate change that has only grown since 1998.
The 31,487 signatures, many found to be fictional or unverifiable, would represent 0.25% of all U.S. science graduates. Holding a science degree does not indicate expertise in scientific fields outside one’s specialty.
The petition was accompanied by a manuscript deceptively formatted to resemble the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PNAS disavowed any affiliation with the manuscript and rejected its conclusions.
A 2021 review of 88,125 peer-reviewed climate change papers published since 2012 found that the climate change consensus exceeded 99%.
Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact
This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as this one.
Sources
Media Matters for USA 700 Club anchor touted global warming skeptics’ petition reportedly signed by non-scientists, fictitious characters
HuffPost The 30,000 Global Warming Petition Is Easily-Debunked Propaganda
National Academy of Sciences Statement of the Council of the NAS Regarding Global Change Petition
The Seattle Times Jokers Add Fake Names To Warming Petition
Scientific American SKEPTICISM ABOUT SKEPTICS
DeSmog Oregon Petition
Scholars & Rogues Federal education data shows OISM’s climate change denying Petition Project actually a tiny minority
NASA Scientific Consensus
Environmental Research Letters Consensus revisited: quantifying scientific agreement on climate change and climate expertise among Earth scientists 10 years later
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all of our published fact briefs here.
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