During a recent hearing on the role of innovation in addressing climate change, several Republicans made faulty claims about the climate, past and present.
Scientist Schools Congressmen on Climate
Person: Lamar Smith
Smith’s Error-Filled Climate Op-Ed
In an op-ed for Fox News, Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House science committee, made a host of false and misleading claims about climate change and related issues.
Smith Wrong About NSF Funding
The head of the House science committee falsely claimed the National Science Foundation funds “more than twice as many graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences as in computer science, mathematics or material science.”
CO2: Friend or Foe to Agriculture?
Rep. Lamar Smith said climate change “alarmists” ignore the “positive impacts” of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, such as increased food production and quality. But the impact of increased CO2 levels on agriculture is more complicated than that — and, on balance, likely negative, particularly in the future.
Smith Spins NASA Funding
Rep. Lamar Smith said that, after national security agencies, “NASA received the most favorable budget request from the Trump administration.” True, but President Trump’s 2018 proposal would still cut NASA’s budget by about 3 percent compared with the agency’s enacted budget for 2017.
No Data Manipulation at NOAA
Top Republicans on the House science committee claim a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist “confirmed” that his NOAA colleagues “manipulated” climate data for a 2015 study. But that scientist denies that he accused NOAA of manipulating data.
FactChecking Science in 2016
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.
Smith Still Wrong About Warming ‘Halt’
Rep. Lamar Smith at a recent hearing claimed a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change “confirms the halt in global warming.” It doesn’t. In fact, the authors of the paper write, “We do not believe that warming has ceased.”
Video: Climate Change Claims
In this video, FlackCheck.org reviews some of the false and misleading claims about climate change that we have written about for our SciCheck feature.
Climate Change Review
With the recent climate change agreement in Paris, we provide here a recap of false and misleading claims about climate change that we have fact-checked in recent years.