Mostly false: “Energy and food are getting more expensive and companies are leaving”

Dutch ECR Group vice president Robert Roos claims: “Energy and food are becoming more expensive and companies are leaving. It is time to stop the green deal.” This statement turned out to be mostly false.  On 12 March 2024, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group) tweeted a quote from their vice president Robert…

True: the past twelve months were 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial era

On November 9, 2023, journalist Heleen Ekker, from RTL Nieuws, wrote about the warmest twelve months in history (Last Twelve Months Warmer Than Ever Recorded, 2023). She based her statement on research from Climate Central. She said that the past twelve months were the warmest period ever recorded, with temperatures 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than…

Mostly true: “Banning nuclear energy is the stupidest thing a country can do”

On April 18th of this year, Bart de Wever, the leader of the political opposition party the New-Flemish Alliance claimed on Twitter that ‘banning nuclear energy is the stupidest thing a country can do’. The tweet lacks context but contains accurate numbers. It appears this claim is mostly true. Bart De Wever tweeted a screenshot…

True: Migratory birds are threatened by climate change

The impact of climate change on animals and nature is a recurring research topic. But according to the news website n-tv also the habitats of migratory birds are threatened by climate change. This claim turns out to be true. Climate change is affecting most coastal areas and their inhabitants, such as migratory birds that stop…

Uncheckable: EU spends trillions to slow climate change by 0.05 degrees

An article in the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) by Bjørn Lomborg from 2013 claims that the EU is spending trillions of euros to reduce global warming by just 0.05 degrees Celsius. According to current research, the costs could be significantly higher. The effect of the measures on global warming remains unclear. Scientific forecasts come…

Mostly true: “Sustainable aviation leads to job loss, higher travel costs and low passenger demand”

An article titled “Sustainable Aviation: Increased cost of greener aviation will curtail pax demand” posted in TR Business (a business to business trade magazine) on 17 April 2023 reports that greener aviation will lead to a loss of thousands of jobs, higher travel costs and low passenger demand. As climate change due to air carbonization…

Media analysis: The journalistic treatment of eco-anxiety in the Spanish, British and French press

Although the term ‘eco-anxiety’ already existed before, it has gained significant presence in European media over the past few years. We have examined La Vanguardia (Spain), The Guardian (UK) and Le Monde (France) to see how three prestigious newspapers from different countries address this phenomenon. In all cases, we present a quantitative and qualitative analysis.…

False: “Cars are related to pollution, but have nothing to do with climate change”

Former Barcelona mayor Xavier Trias stated in an interview that “cars are related to pollution, but have nothing to do with climate change”. He added that “we should not mix concepts, since then good-faith people end up joining battles which are not connected”. After analyzing different scientific reports, the claim turns out to be false. …