PeakMetrics / Fact Checks
Climate & environment fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about climate & environment. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
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Deutschlands Anteil am weltweiten CO2-Ausstoß beträgt 0,000028 %. Außerdem ist der menschengemachte Anteil des CO2s in der Luft so gering, dass er keine Auswirkungen auf den Klimawandel hat.
Publisher’s rating: Es ist zwar richtig, dass der Kohlenstoffdioxid-Anteil in der Luft nur 0,04 Prozent beträgt. Trotzdem ist das Gas der größte Faktor im Klimawandel. Denn während die Natur das selbst produzierte CO2 wieder vollständig absorbiert, sind die menschengemachten Emissionen eine zusätzliche Belastung. Deutschlands Anteil an den weltweiten CO2-Emissionen beträgt außerdem 1,8 Prozent.
"(صورة متداولة) توضح ارتفاع درجة حرارة مياه البحر قبالة الشواطيء الليبية وخاصة مدينة#طرابلس"
Publisher’s rating: مضلل
The claim says a circulating image shows unusually high sea temperatures off the Libyan coast, particularly near Tripoli. Annir’s review says the image was not a sea-temperature map: it represented the distribution of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) from emissions of Mount Etna in Sicily. The review reports that this explanation came from the Ru’ya Foundation for Space Science and Applications, which had posted a clarification about the image.
Le WEF veut criminaliser l'inaction climatique, qui peut être sanctionnée par la peine de mort.
Publisher’s rating: Non, aucune preuve ne soutient ces affirmations, qui proviennent de sites bien connus pour fabriquer de fausses informations. Dans ce cas-ci, il y a confusion entre les préventions de violations des droits humains et de crimes graves passibles de la peine de mort aux Etats-Unis.
Bill Gates unterstützt das Vorhaben, 70 Millionen Hektar Bäume zu fällen, um die globale Erwärmung zu bekämpfen.
Publisher’s rating: Die US-Forstverwaltung strebt eine Auflichtung großer Waldflächen an, um Waldbränden vorzubeugen. Unabhängig davon hat ein von Gates finanziell unterstütztes Unternehmen ein Konzept zur Aufbewahrung von Holzresten entwickelt, das deren CO2-Ausstoß beim Zerfall minimieren soll.
The claim combines two separate activities: the US Forest Service’s plans to thin forests in parts of the western United States, and a wood-storage concept developed by Kodama Systems, a startup that received funding from a climate fund founded by Bill Gates. The review says the social-media version incorrectly attributes the tree-felling plan to Gates or Kodama. It reports that the Forest Service planned to thin forests over the next decade to address wildfire risks, while Kodama’s concept concerned what to do with some of the wood left after thinning. [S1]
Bill Gates financiert een bedrijf om 70 miljoen hectare bos te kappen en de bomen te begraven om klimaatverandering tegen te gaan.
Publisher’s rating: Nee, een investeringsfonds dat is opgezet door Bill Gates investeerde inderdaad in Kodama Systems, maar dat bedrijf gaat geen 70 miljoen hectare bos kappen. De Amerikaanse Forest Service wil 70 miljoen acres (28 miljoen hectare) bos "behandelen" om het bestendig te maken tegen bosbranden. Kodama levert een bijdrage én ontwikkelt een nieuwe techniek om CO2 uit bomen in de grond op te slaan, zodat het niet in de atmosfeer terechtkomt.
The claim links Bill Gates, Kodama Systems, forest clearing and burying trees, but the review distinguishes the company’s actual work from the alleged plan. Kodama did receive $6.6 million in a funding round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment fund set up by Gates. The company develops technology for forest management and carbon storage; the review says the investment was intended in part to improve the efficiency of forest thinning, not to clear 70 million hectares.
"Erstens einmal, so haben wir den Wald komplett geöffnet für den Wind, was die größte Chance ist, weil wir 40 Prozent Waldfläche haben."
Publisher’s rating: Teilweise richtig, teilweise aber auch falsch. Durch eine Lockerung der bayerischen 10H-Regelung ist es leichter geworden, Windräder im Wald zu bauen. Durch ein Bundesgesetz – das "Wind-an-Land-Gesetz" – verliert aber die 10H-Regelung für Bayern ohnehin an Bedeutung. Windräder werden künftig vor allem in ausgewiesenen Windvorranggebieten entstehen, eine Quote dafür ist vorgeschrieben. Diese Vorranggebiete liegen teilweise auch im Wald – unabhängig davon, was die bayerische Landesregierung in Bezug auf die 10H-Regelung entschieden hatte. Bayern ist zu 35,3 Prozent mit Wald bedeckt.
Vegan Leather Is not Sustainable!!
Publisher’s rating: Missing Context
Bill Gates a une autre "excellente" idée : abattre des milliers d’hectares d’arbres pour contribuer à réduire les émissions de CO₂. Les arbres absorbent en fait du CO₂ et libèrent de l’oxygène !
Publisher’s rating: Bill Gates n'a pas l'intention de déboiser 70 millions d'acres (demi-hectares) de forêt à travers l'une de ses sociétés. Le co-fondateur de Microsoft finance en réalité le développement d'une technologie d'éclaircie forestière et de séquestration du carbone. Cette solution implique l'enfouissement dans le sol d'arbres considérés comme à risque d'incendie afin de garder sous terre le CO2 qu'ils ont absorbé tout au long de leur vie.
The posts at issue said that a company financed by Bill Gates intended to cut down 70 million acres of trees to reduce CO₂ emissions. The review identifies Kodama Systems as the company behind the project and says Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund and other investors provided it with more than $6 million in December 2022. Kodama’s stated aim was to develop technology for selective forest thinning and carbon storage, not to clear all the trees across 70 million acres. The proposed approach is to bury dead or fire-risk trees removed during thinning, rather than leave them to burn or decompose and release their carbon. The review explains that thinning is intended to remove selected trees and brush to reduce fire risk and help healthier trees thrive. It also notes that the U.S. Forest Service’s plan covers increased management of 50 million additional acres at high fire risk; the separate 70-million-acre figure was reportedly a broader forest-thinning target that was misread as an area to be completely cleared. The review reports that Kodama spokesperson James Sedlak called the claim false in an email to dpa on September 29, 2023, and said the 70-million-acre figure had been misinterpreted. The underlying carbon-storage proposal was still a developing technology: the review says its effectiveness, costs, environmental impacts, and ability to keep carbon stored over time remained to be demonstrated.
Doug Burgum: “No es sobre el cambio climático que debemos preocuparnos”.
Publisher’s rating: Falso
The butterfly population in the UK has exploded by 338% and butterflies are a marker of a healthy environment thus climate change is not real.
Publisher’s rating: Misleading
The review examines an Instagram video by @katie_hopkins that claimed UK butterfly numbers had “exploded by 338%” and argued that, because butterflies indicate environmental health, climate change was not real. The review says the figure did not describe the UK’s butterfly population as a whole: it concerned one species, the red admiral. Its account reports that red admiral numbers rose by about 78% over 13 years, while seven of the 17 widespread species counted over that period had significant declines. Those contrasting trends undermine the video’s presentation of a single increase as a general population boom. The review links the red admiral’s increase to its benefit from global heating, rather than treating it as evidence that climate change is absent. It describes varied responses among species: some have expanded northward or emerged earlier in spring, while others have declined. For example, the comma has expanded into Scotland, whereas the review identifies the brown argus and small copper among species with more significant losses over the past 40 years. The evidence presented is therefore about different species responding differently, not a uniform change across UK butterflies. The review also gives broader conservation context. It says a current Red List assessment found a 26% increase in butterfly species facing extinction and a 76% drop in butterfly abundance or range since 1976. While the review describes butterflies as bio-indicators sensitive to climate and other environmental pressures, that does not make one species’ increase proof that the environment is healthy overall—or that climate change is not real. The excerpt reports findings and cites research and government statistics, but does not describe a separate checking procedure or provide the underlying data tables.
Förster empfehlen laut einem Bericht im Bayerischen Rundfunk Kommunen und Privatwaldbesitzern, Laubwälder aufzulichten und zum Beispiel Mittelwälder daraus zu machen.
Publisher’s rating: Es gibt laut Bayerischer Landesanstalt für Wald und Forstwirtschaft keine derartigen Empfehlungen seitens der Förster. Mittelwälder sind ein historisches Bewirtschaftungskonzept, das hierzulande nur in wenigen Fällen noch Anwendung findet - und dann aus Naturschutzgründen.
Mehr Messstationen befinden sich heute in städtischen Regionen, wodurch die Temperaturmesswerte verzerrt werden, da es in der Stadt erwiesenermaßen heißer wird.
Publisher’s rating: Der städtische Wärmeinseleffekt fließt in Österreich in die Messungen ein, trägt aber nur einen Bruchteil zum Gesamtanstieg der beobachteten Temperaturwerte bei. In Deutschland, das auch im Mittelpunkt des Videos steht, fließen städtische Messungen gar nicht in diese Berechnungen ein.
The claim concerns whether a growing concentration of weather stations in cities makes measured temperature trends misleading. The review acknowledges that cities are warmer than rural areas, but examines whether urban stations are increasingly contributing to the datasets used to calculate average temperatures. It reports that the cited video focused on Germany as well as the broader issue. For Austria, the review describes the HISTALP network, which has measured average temperature over more than 250 years. Geosphere Austria climatologist Alexander Orlik told APA that only a few of its 38 stations are in urban areas, including stations in Innsbruck and Vienna, while six are mountain-top stations. Urban readings do contribute, but the review reports Orlik’s assessment that their contribution is only a fraction of the overall temperature increase. In Vienna, the measured increase was about 0.2°C above the increase observed across Austria; Orlik said the urban heat effect does not explain the country’s overall increase. The review also reports that station locations are periodically changed, with comparable nearby sites sought, and that records are homogenized to correct artificial jumps and effects from relocations or measurement-method changes. It says the sources consulted reported no trend toward establishing more stations in cities. For Germany, the German Weather Service told APA that its separate urban-climate stations are not part of the official network used to calculate regional or national averages. The review therefore distinguishes the existence of warmer urban conditions from whether those measurements drive the reported national trends.
中国でミネラルウォーターを海に撒いて福島の処理水を中和している
Publisher’s rating: 誤り
The video showed a Buddhist-related custom in Shanwei, Guangdong, rather than an effort to neutralize Fukushima’s treated water. The review explains that mineral water was scattered into the sea as part of a “放生” custom, in which animals are released into the wild.
"Zunächst mal war es in meinen Augen, obwohl ich kein Atomfetischist bin, ein Fehler, dass wir Isar 2 bei Landshut, das ist sogar in meinem Stimmkreis, jetzt vom Netz genommen haben. Das hat 15 Prozent des bayerischen Stroms erzeugt. Und wir hatten dort noch Brennstäbe, die liegen jetzt noch dort, die noch für vier Monate den Vollbetrieb gewährleisten hätten können, wir hätten den jetzigen Winter noch mit abdecken können, hätten viel Fracking-Gas sparen können."
Publisher’s rating: Größtenteils richtig. Bei der Prozentzahl, die laut Hubert Aiwanger den Anteil von Isar 2 an der bayerischen Stromerzeugung angibt, liegt er um drei Prozentpunkte falsch.
The review checks verifiable factual parts of Hubert Aiwanger’s remarks at the BR24 Wahlarena: the share of Bavarian electricity generated by Isar 2, whether its remaining fuel elements could have supported a further period of operation, and the prospect of saving fracking gas. It explicitly excludes his political judgment that shutting the plant was a mistake. Isar 2 had been shut down during the night of 16 April 2023. For the electricity-share claim, the review reports that the operator put Isar 2’s annual output at about 11 terawatt-hours, or roughly 12% of Bavaria’s electricity through 2021. It also explains why a different figure applies to 2022: Gundremmingen had closed at the turn of 2021–22, reducing total nuclear generation. Using the Bavarian economics ministry’s estimate that this removed 11.22 TWh, the review calculates Isar 2’s 2022 output at 12.3 TWh and its share of Bavaria’s estimated 68.24 TWh total generation at 18.02%. Thus the quoted 15% does not fit either comparison: it is three percentage points above the roughly 12% figure used for the usual pre-2022 share, while the calculated 2022 share was about 18%. On fuel, PreussenElektra had previously told BR that the old fuel elements could support a short extension to March of the following year if the reactor’s output were reduced. By the time of the review, the elements had been moved to the spent-fuel pool and the operator was preparing the plant’s dismantling; it declined to discuss hypothetical continued operation. On gas, the review notes that LNG accounted for 33.8 TWh of Germany’s 526 TWh of imported gas in the first half of 2023, and that a specific forecast for Bavarian LNG gas use in the coming winter could not then be made. The article therefore provides evidence for some parts of Aiwanger’s remarks, but does not establish that the proposed operation would have saved a particular amount of fracking gas.
Das AKW Isar 2 erzeugte 15 Prozent des bayerischen Stroms. Ein Weiterbetrieb für vier Monate hätte importiertes Fracking-Gas eingespart.
Publisher’s rating: Zum Teil annähernd richtig, zum Teil unklar. Der prozentuale Anteil von Isar 2 lag in der Nähe von 15 Prozent. Ob ein Weiterbetrieb mehr Strom erzeugt hätte, dazu gibt es verschiedene Aussagen.
Erhöhung der Durchschnittstemperatur durch zunehmend städtische Messstationen.
Publisher’s rating: Es ist richtig, dass es heutzutage mehrere Messstationen im städtischen Raum gibt. In die Erhebung der Durchschnittstemperaturwerte in Deutschland fließen deren Messungen allerdings nicht ein. Darüber hinaus wird beim Bemessungsverfahren darauf Acht gegeben, Einflüsse durch Verlegungen im Netz zu minimieren.
The claim concerns Germany: a viral video argued that average temperatures have risen because weather stations were moved into urban areas. The review distinguishes this claim from the separate fact that cities can be warmer than rural areas. It reports that a University of Hamburg meteorologist, Felix Ament, said there was no trend toward moving stations into cities, and that such a practice would conflict with World Meteorological Organization standards. The DWD also said it had no interest in relocating stations toward cities. Evidence cited: “Demnach soll es in Deutschland höhere Werte gegeben haben, weil Messstationen über die letzten Jahrzehnte in Stadtgegenden verlegt worden sind.” and “Dessen Antwort fiel klar aus: «Nein, diese Entwicklung gibt es nicht.»” The review says the DWD operates a separate urban-climate network to measure the urban heat-island effect, but its stations are not part of the official network used to calculate average temperatures for Germany or its federal states. The review attributes this distinction to DWD spokesperson Uwe Kirsche. It also reports that established record temperatures are measured in open locations, not cities. Evidence cited: “Allerdings seien diese Stationen nicht Teil des offiziellen DWD-Messnetzes, ihre Daten fließen also «nicht in die Berechnung der Gebietsmittel der Temperaturen der Bundesländer und Deutschland mit ein.»” and “Die bekannten Rekordwerte würden demnach nicht in Städten, sondern in «freier Lage» erhoben.” The review acknowledges that station locations can change over decades, including moves from city centers toward suburbs or outskirts as development increases. It says the DWD accounts for network changes in its calculations and corrects resulting irregularities using scientific methods and international standards. Thus, the existence of urban measurements or station moves does not establish that increasingly urban stations raised Germany’s calculated average. Evidence cited: “Stationen in Innenstädten werden nach Informationen des DWD immer häufiger ins Umland oder in die Peripherie der Städte verlegt.” and “Die dabei entstehenden Abweichungen werden laut Kirsche «sorgfältig mit wissenschaftlichen Methoden nach internationalen Standards korrigiert».”
“Ao longo dos últimos oito meses, o desmatamento na Amazônia brasileira já foi reduzido em 48%”
Publisher’s rating: Verdadeiro, mas...