By Justina Asishana
Claim: A Twitter User @wideawake_media, on the 3rd of May 2023, wrote about Greenpeace co-Founder, Dr. Patrick Moore, claiming that there is no evidence that CO2 has anything to do with the temperature.
The tweet read, “Greenpeace co-founder, Dr. Patrick Moore: “There’s no evidence whatsoever that CO2 is doing anything to the temperature. Absolutely none.” The Greenpeace, at https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/greenpeace-statement-on-patric/, has distanced itself from Moore.
The tweet also included a 1.53-minute video showing Dr. Patric Moore saying at the end that “There is no evidence whatsoever that CO2 is doing anything to the temperature. Absolutely none.” It had 988 retweets, 34 quotes, 1,554 likes and 98 bookmarks.
Verification
What is Carbon Dioxide?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that originates from the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas and natural phenomena like wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and other natural processes.
What is Temperature?
Temperature is defined as the degree of hotness or coldness of an object or the measure of the amount of heat energy an object possesses. According to Britannica, temperature serves as an indicator of the natural flow of heat energy.
Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Temperature
According to National History Museum, Carbon dioxide causes an effect like the glass in a greenhouse, trapping heat and warming up the inside, and even though it makes up less than 0.1% of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can have a huge effect on how much heat the planet’s surface retains.
The trapped heat energy increases average global surface air temperatures, ultimately resulting in climate change.
NOAA states that carbon dioxide is crucial for maintaining Earth’s natural greenhouse effect, which prevents the average global surface temperature from falling below freezing. However, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels have intensified this effect by significantly increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This accelerated greenhouse effect is leading to a rise in global temperatures.
Carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation, which controls the Earth’s temperature. As a result, the rise in carbon dioxide concentration has led to an increase in global temperatures.
Although water vapor has a greater impact on the overall greenhouse effect, scientists have discovered that carbon dioxide is the key gas responsible for determining and regulating temperature.
By adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, people are supercharging the natural greenhouse effect, causing global temperatures to rise. A research paper published in Nature Climate Change demonstrated that higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations directly increase temperature.
Greenpeace on Patrick Moore
Greenpeace has issued several press statements regarding Patrick Moore and his anti-climate change stance, including that Moore is neither a co-founder of Greenpeace nor was he its spokesperson.
The statement which is in the website of Greenpeace read, “Moore frequently portrays himself as a founder or co-founder of Greenpeace, and many news outlets have repeated this characterization. Although Mr. Moore played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years, he did not found Greenpeace. Phil Cote, Irving Stowe, and Jim Bohlen founded Greenpeace in 1970.”
The organization also recognizes that Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental “expert” or an “environmentalist,” while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance stating that Moore has been a paid spokesman for various polluting companies for more than 30 years.
“He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes.
“Patrick Moore has been a paid spokesman for a variety of polluting industries for more than 30 years, including the timber, mining, chemical and the aquaculture industries. Most of these industries hired Mr. Moore only after becoming the focus of a Greenpeace campaign to improve their environmental performance.”
Rating
False: Global temperatures have been rising due to the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, predominantly carbon dioxide, which traps heat, preventing it from escaping into space.
This fact-check was produced by Justina Asishana, a journalist with The Nation newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance network
