Sen. James Inhofe misleadingly claimed that the statistics behind the globe’s likely hottest years on record — 2014, 2015 and 2016 — were “meaningless” because the temperature increases were “well within the margin of error.” Taking into account the margins of error, there’s still a long-term warming trend.
We look back at some of the more questionable science-related claims from 2016 on topics such as climate change, Zika, GMOs, marijuana and the human mind.
The head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee falsely claimed that a new report “confirms” that “hydraulic fracturing has not impacted drinking water” in Wyoming. The report said it could not reach “firm conclusions.”
Sen. James Inhofe made misleading claims in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency about the relationship between neonicotinoid pesticides and bees.
SciCheck writer Dave Levitan of FactCheck.org was interviewed by Ira Flatow for a segment on Science Friday about the 10th International Conference on Climate Change.
Levitan and Flatow discussed a claim from Sen. James Inhofe about the polar bear population, as well as claims from Rep. Lamar Smith about global temperatures and the influence of climate change on extreme weather patterns.
Levitan’s segment begins at the 5:15 mark and ends at 10:25:
SciCheck is made possible by a grant from the Stanton Foundation.
The Environmental Protection Agency released the draft of a long-awaited study on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing — fracking — for natural gas on drinking water, and individuals on both sides of the debate have misrepresented the study’s findings.
Sen. James Inhofe says there has never been “an instance of ground water contamination” caused by hydraulic fracturing — fracking — for oil and natural gas. But drilling operations that involve fracking include other actions that have caused contamination.
Sen. Jim Inhofe scoffed at the suggestion that China could shift 20 percent of its energy to non-fossil fuels by 2030, in part, he said, because China “has no known reserves of natural gas.” But Inhofe is wrong about that.
Sen. Jim Inhofe badly misquoted Gen. Martin E. Dempsey when he claimed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the current state of the U.S. military as “so degraded and unready, it would be immoral to use force.”
Republican response to President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce gun violence has been peppered with misleading claims.
Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas claimed, “Gun bans and anti-gun laws have always led to one thing — more gun violence.” But the majority of academic research on the effect of the federal assault weapons ban, as well as restrictive gun laws in several major cities, has found no such causal link.
Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana condemned what he said was Obama’s plan to “push”