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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Climate & environment fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about climate & environment. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,358 published reviews in this topic

dpaClimate & environment

Cette vidéo montre le changement climatique en images.

Publisher’s rating: L'homme sur les images procède à un brûlage dirigé dans une réserve naturelle en Californie, aux Etats-Unis. Il s'agit d'une technique visant à brûler une zone spécifique pour maintenir un écosystème sain, mais aussi pour diminuer le risque d'incendie en éliminant les débris inflammables.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaClimate & environment

Climate Change is a tool used for Depopulation!!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

Factcrescendo Sri Lanka examined a Facebook video that portrayed climate change as a deliberate depopulation project and linked it to weather-control technology. The review describes the video’s central assertion as “climate change is not a natural phenomenon but rather a deliberately engineered agenda aimed at reducing the global population.” It reports that the video used claims about population growth, weather modification and scientific projects to support that narrative. The review says the video selectively edited an interview with systems scientist Dennis Meadows. It compared the clip’s portrayal with the original interview and concluded that Meadows discussed the challenges of unchecked growth and sustainable resource management, but did not explicitly advocate reducing the population. It also explains that *The Limits to Growth*, which Meadows co-authored, examined possible consequences of exponential economic and population growth on a finite planet; the review says the report raised concerns about resource depletion and environmental degradation rather than endorsing the video’s depopulation claim. The review also addresses the video’s appeal to weather technology. It says physicist Michio Kaku discussed weather modification using lasers as a theoretical possibility, while noting that such methods had not been widely implemented for large-scale weather control. The review distinguishes ordinary weather radar from HAARP, which it describes as a research facility studying the ionosphere. Its conclusion is that the video misrepresented interview statements and scientific projects to suggest a coordinated climate-change and depopulation agenda.

Factcrescendo ThailandClimate & environment

วิดีโอมาจากเหตุการณ์การปล่อยน้ำบำบัดจากโรงไฟฟ้านิวเคลียร์ลงในทะเลที่จังหวัดฟุกุชิมะ ประเทศญี่ปุ่น

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns videos said to show the release of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. The review examines two different clips circulated with that allegation: one showing a mass of fish stranded on shore, and another showing wastewater flowing into the sea. It reports that Japan began the treated-water release on August 24, 2023, and concludes that neither clip depicts that release. For the fish video, the review says it used reverse video and image searches on key frames. It found the footage had appeared on Weibo six months earlier and matched reporting about sardines stranded in Niigata Prefecture in early February 2023. The review says the images appeared likely to show the same place, and notes that Niigata and Fukushima are on opposite sides of Japan. Those findings place the footage before the claimed release and at a different location. For the second video, the review traces it to wastewater flowing onto a beach in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, three years earlier. Thus, the clips’ earlier and different documented origins—not footage of the Fukushima release—are the basis for rejecting the claim.

dpa-factcheckingClimate & environment

Alte Schlagzeilen (1957 – 56 Grad; 1975 – 40 Grad; 2022 – 35 Grad) zeigen: Es wird immer kälter.

Publisher’s rating: Der Vergleich der drei Artikel ist irreführend. Der Juni 2022 in Österreich war überdurchschnittlich heiss, wohingegen die 56 Grad im Jahr 1957 in Deutschland in einer Bahnhofsuhr gemessen wurden und somit nicht in den offiziellen Temperaturstatistiken erscheinen. Auch die vermeintlichen 40 Grad aus dem Jahr 1975 sind statistisch irrelevant, da es sich dabei lediglich um eine Prognose handelte.

The review examines a collage using headlines from 1957, 1975 and June 2022 to argue that it is getting colder. The headlines cited were “56 Grad! Ganz Deutschland ein Brutofen!” in Germany’s Bild in 1957, “40 Grad Hitze - Jetzt wird das Wetter lebensgefährlich!” in Bild in 1975, and an Austrian Kronen Zeitung headline about temperatures around 35 degrees in June 2022. The review checks whether the older figures represent comparable recorded temperatures and whether the headlines support the conclusion drawn from them. The review says the 1957 figure was measured inside a railway-station clock in Wanne-Eickel, not as an official outdoor temperature. It reports that archived outdoor measurements across Germany at the time were all below 40 degrees. For 1975, Bild’s 40-degree figure was a forecast; the review says that temperature was not reached on 10 August and that 1975 does not appear among Germany’s hottest days in the records it discusses. It notes that Germany did experience a moderate heatwave in the first half of August that year. The 2022 headline concerned an interview about June temperatures, the coming summer and weather extremes. The review reports that the meteorologist’s remark about 34 or 35 degrees being unusual referred to June. It also cites an expert’s assessment that June heat days in Austria’s low-lying areas had doubled to quadrupled over recent decades, and that June 2022 was well above the already high level of the previous 30 years. The review adds that Swiss temperatures had risen since measurements began in 1864 and that heat days were increasing. Taken together, its evidence shows why these three headlines are not a sound like-for-like comparison for establishing a cooling trend.