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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

We also identified the most common fallacies in climate misinformation. Slothful induction and cherry picking were the most common, followed by oversimplification and misrepresentation. Single cause (a form of oversimplification) was fifth.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

The result was a detailed summary of climate myths, how we deconstructed them, the hidden premises in each myth, and the logical fallacies in each myth - this table is intended as a resource for anyone wishing to write debunkings of climate myths that use the fact-myth-fallacy format.

table summarising fallacies in each climate myth

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

We also did some conceptual work clarifying the differences between some fallacies that seemed difficult to distinguish. E.g., cherry picking from slothful induction, and misrepresentation from oversimplification. Wendy Cook created this lovely infographic for the paper.

Infographic providing conceptual distinctions between fallacies

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

For this new paper, we expanded the 2018 flowchart to make it more practical, working with a variety of real-world misinformation. Note: this work was initially done as an Honours project by Ruby Flack, then expanded into a full paper with the larger team of coauthors.

Expanded flowchart for deconstructing misinformation

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

In 2018, I worked with critical thinking philosophers to develop a step-by-step methodology for logic-checking. It involves deconstructing claims into an argument structure (premises & a conclusion), check for hidden premises, then examine each premise for logical fallacies sks.to/criticalclim...

Flowchart for deconstructing misinformation

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

We started with the taxonomy of contrarian claims about climate change from our 2021 paper (sks.to/cardspaper). In our 2021 paper, we didn't make any judgements about whether the claims were misleading or not - that's what this new research set out to do.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

For example, the facts could have been explained clearer & simpler (following the old mantra: fight sticky myths with stickier facts). Also, few of the rebuttals explained the logical fallacies committed by the myth - a debunking approach recommended by the Debunking Handbook sks.to/db2020

The truth sandwich format for debunking: fact, myth, fallacy, fact

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The strongest result from our data was that the website had its biggest effect in improving climate perceptions among climate dismissives (strongly disagreed with climate facts/strongly agreed with climate myths). Belief in climate myths overall went down.

Change in accuracy among participants at varying pre-rebuttal values (positive value means increase in accuracy).

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

6261 people filled out both the pre-rebuttal and post-rebuttal form from Nov 2021 to Jul 2025. The first thing that jumped out at us was that nearly half of visitors strongly agreed with the fact or strongly disagreed with the myth. We think most SkS visitors come to arm themselves with info.

Accuracy of climate perceptions of SkS visitors when they first arrive at the site.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The first challenge was collecting live data. Readers who came directly to a Skeptical Science rebuttal via google were asked how much they agreed with either a climate fact or myth. Then if they read all the way down to the end of the rebuttal, they received the same survey.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Taking a similar approach, I created a spreadsheet of the characters' journey. I also added climate data along the way - temperature, precipitation, biome, season (arcing into winter as the story gets dire, trending to spring at the end). Then used that to add immersive details to the story.

Spreadsheet of climate data for every step of the characters' journey.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

In fact, I was inspired by Tolkien's writing approach. He created detailed tables for each character in Lord of the Rings, detailed where they were on each day of the story, describing environmental details like moon phases and wind direction.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I was especially drawn to the simulation of biomes - which parts of the world are forest, grasslands, desert, etc. The biome maps became my guide in designing a map for the fantasy world (called Terrios).

Top figure: simulated biomes of Terrios. Bottom figure: fantasy map of Terrios.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Months passed, then Alex came back with the results of the climate model simulation - temperature, precipitation, wind strength & direction, humidity, sea ice, the weather patterns of the entire world all year around. Next level world-building!

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Bristol climate scientist Alex Farnsworth took it on. He had a small request - provide a digital elevation map of the entire planet providing the elevation of every point of land (including ocean ocean). Easy! So I gave them this (well, I had to write R code to convert the PNG into a CSV)

Digital elevation map of the fantasy world Terrios

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

The Debunking Handbook 2020 has now been translated into Basque, making it the 21st translation of this influential guide to the psychological research into debunking misinformation. Many thanks to translator Laida Arbizu Aguirre and Wendy Cook for typesetting sks.to/db2020

Cover of Basque translation of the Debunking Handbook 2020

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

This cartoon parodies the (false) argument that Greenland used to be green so human-caused global warming isn't real. The only relevance it has to recent news is it also involves ridiculous alternative names for Greenland (IMO Icesheetia or Spectaculonia are still better than Red, White & Blueland)

Cartoon of Erik the Red discovering Greenland and trying to persuade his fellow vikings to settle there.

Cartoon of Erik the Red trying to come up with an enticing name for the icesheet-ridden landmass so people were more likely to move there.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

My cartoon on the questionable practise of trusting winter predictions to a groundhog when scientists’ climate predictions are called into question. Almost as questionable as my drawing of a groundhog!

Cartoon of Cranky Uncle holding a groundhog saying “This ground predicts a long winter.” Man says “Scientists say winters are getting warmer.” Cranky Uncle responds “You can’t trust what scientists say.”

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

It's Lindzen. This is my caricature of Pielke (junior, not senior).

Cartoon about being an honest broker between science and denial. Scientist says "2 + 2 = 4". Cranky Uncle says "2 + 2 = 2". Roger Pielke Jr says "2 + 2 = 3"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

No, not John Christy. This is my caricature of John Christy from the "97 Hours of Consensus" - which was retweeted by Obama and reached millions of people skepticalscience.com/97-Hours-of-...

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

A cartoon on how people cherry pick among experts (and fake experts) until they find one saying what they want to believe. Incidentally, all the scientists here are caricatures of real scientists (although @simondonner.bsky.social's hair no longer looks like that, sadly for caricaturists).

Cartoon of scientists talking to Cranky Uncle saying: "We're causing climate change", "Yep, it's us", "Human activity is responsible", "We're it", "Human-caused climate change is happening", "We're the predominant cause", "Yeah, it's human activity", "Sorry, we're responsible", "Global warming is caused by people.", "Still us", "Humans are disrputing the climate", "We've caused an increased greenhouse effect", "We're emitting heat trapping gases", "It's by burning fossil fuels", "It's natural cycles". Cranky Uncle responds to the last scientist: "I knew it!"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

When creating Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, I emailed Ben Santer asking if I could use his likeness to depict the strengthening scientific consensus on human-caused global warming. Later, I attended a DC talk by Ben. He saw me & apologetically confessed he was using that cartoon. I was chuffed!

Cartoon of Ben Santer summarising the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming in the IPCC reports. 1995: The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate. 2001: It's likely that most of the global warmign is due to greenhouse gases. 2007: It's very likely that most of global warmign is due to greenhouse gases. 2013: It's extremely like that - oof! (hits head on top of graph).

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Whether it's wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, drought, whenever we're devastated by extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, we are shooshed by climate deniers. It's another attempt to delay action on climate change and is making our world more dangerous.

Cartoon of Cranky Uncle telling scientist "Now is not the time to talk about climate change." "Now?" asks the scientist. "Not the right time." "When?" "Not yet." "Come on!" "Shoosh!" "Surely!" "Soon." "Now?" "Ok." "Climate change is..." "A hoax!"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

As we're about to enter a U.S. administration determined to decimate climate science & climate action, let's reminisce bittersweet over the times when a President supported & amplified climate science (not to mention highlight our 97% scientific consensus study).

Cartoon of President Obama making a speech: 97% of scientists have acknowledged that the planet is warming and human activity is contributing to it. We are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change. It's no longer some far-off problem. It's happening here. It's happening now! I mean NOW!! Can someone bring me a glass of water?!

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

I recommend you read the full article! One last comment - the cover of the Skeptical Inquirer article includes hilarious cartoon caricatures of the contributors including myself & Cranky Uncle. IMO they did a better job on me than Uncle! skepticalinquirer.org/2024/12/the-...

Cartoon caricature of Cranky Uncle and John Cook

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Another solution is the "truth sandwich" where you structure your debunking by starting with the facts, then explaining how the myth misleads, then end with the facts. This fact-myth-fallacy-fact structure puts the emphasis on the facts & also helps people reconcile the conflict between fact & myth.

Graphic of the truth sandwich: fact-myth-fallacy-fact.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

One solution we've explored to overcome this challenge is gamification - teaching people how to spot misinformation techniques through the digital game Cranky Uncle. The game uses cartoons & humor to explain FLICC techniques, then quizzes to practise spotting fallacies crankyuncle.com

Three screenshots from the Cranky Uncle game. First screen shows FLICC fallacy icons. Second screen shows Cranky Uncle explaining a FLICC technique. Third screen shows a quiz where players have to identify the FLICC technique.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

But explaining the misleading rhetorical techniques used in misinformation comes with a challenge. There are a lot of them! Building public resilience against misinformation means teaching them these techniques deeply enough that they can spot them "in the wild" sks.to/flicc

The FLICC taxonomy, summarising misleading techniques used in misinformation. FLICC stands for the five categories of science denial: fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Once you've identified the logical fallacy in misinformation, you can counter the misinformation by explaining how it misleads. With ekvraga.bsky.social, leticiabode.bsky.social & Sojung Kim, we ran a study testing fact- vs logic-based corrections journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Graphic showing two interventions in the 2020 study by Emily Vraga and colleagues. The first intervention is fact-based, the second intervention is logic-based.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Here's an example of deconstructing "climate is changing because climate has always changed", identifying the hidden premise "whatever caused climate change in the past must be causing it now", which commits single cause fallacy

Deconstructing the climate myth "climate is changing because climate has always changed", identifying the hidden premise "whatever caused climate change in the past must be causing it now", which commits single cause fallacy

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

How to logic-check? @reasondisabled.bsky.social, David Kinkead & I developed a step-by-step process for deconstructing misinformation into an argument (premises & a conclusion), identify any hidden premises or unstated assumptions, then identify any fallacies iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Flowchart for deconstructing and logic-checking misinformation (Cook et al., 2018)

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

One example of misinformation that is hard to fact-check is "paltering" - using true statements to mislead. Cherry picking is a classic example such as making a true statement about a short period in order to cast a false impression about longer periods.

Graph of sea level rise and a quote from Bjorn Lomborg highlighting two years were sea levels were flat to cast doubt on long-term sea level rise.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

When I wrote Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, I packed the book with pedagogical cartoons using "parallel argumentation" - transplanting fallacies from climate misinformation into analogous situations - to provoke critical thinking through humour. This was not one of those cartoons.

Cartoon of Earth saying "Oh no, I'm thinning on top. Maybe if I comb over Canada..."

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

The psychological challenge of climate change - our brains are hard-wired to respond to immediate threats, not a slow-motion disaster happening at a global scale (and that's not even considering the tsunami of misinformation hitting us every day).

Cartoon #1: What we're built for... A bear jumps out of a bush, a man cries "oh no, a bear!" Cartoon #2: What we face now... A graph jumps out of a bush, a bored man says "oh, a graph."

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Given the confounding result of the 2024 U.S. election, perhaps we need to rethink our approach to public communication of climate change! P.S. I drew this cartoon in 2018, there are so many other Trumpisms over the last half-decade that I could draw on if I was to create a sequel...

Cartoon: If Donald Trump were a climate communicator. "When climate changes, it's not sending its best. It's bringing heat waves... it's bringing sea level rise... and some, I assume, are good impacts."

Cartoon of Trump speaking: "Which is why I alone can solve it. I know solutions. I have the best solutions. I'll build a big, beautiful, tremendous sea wall... and make the fish pay for it!"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I drew this cartoon in 2018 but after the last year, constantly scrabbling around to find funding to keep a research assistant going on important research into using AI to debunk climate misinformation, the "Research Grants" part of the cartoon feels a lot more real.

Cartoon on what motivates climate scientists: Discovering somethign no one knows, understanding our world, making the world a better place.

Cartoon on what doesn't motivate climate scientists. Research grants, impressing non-scientists, money.

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Often when I give talks and I show the FLICC taxonomy, sharp-eyed audience members ask "uh, what is the blowfish fallacy?" and I have to admit it's one I invented myself, pointing them to this article where I first introduced it :-)

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

This hits a little harder these days, as it can be applied beyond climate change to political impacts as well.

Cartoon of Cranky Uncle and scientist standing in waist deep flooding waters with Uncle demanding from the scientist "why didn't you do a better job convincing me?"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

We've just added the first Hungarian translations of @skepticalscience.bsky.social debunkings, thanks to Denes skepticalscience.com/translation.... (making our rebuttals translated into 25 languages so far).

Screenshot of climate misinformation debunkings translated into Hungarian

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Thanks to Robert Leven's translation & Wendy Cook's graphic design, the Debunking Handbook 2020 is now available in French (amazingly, its 20 translation thanks to many volunteers' efforts) skepticalscience.com/translation-... P.S. love the French word for debunking: demystification)

Cover image for the French translation of the Debunking Handbook 2020

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Think through the consequences if climate conspiracy theories were true & they quickly become ridiculous. How would you explain billions of tonnes of ice melting every year? @michaelemann.bsky.social @sarahmyhre.bsky.social @petergleick.bsky.social @drshepherd2013.bsky.social @rahmstorf.bsky.social

Cartoon of climate scientists dressed in dark robes meeting in a dark room. Scientist (looking suspiciously like Michael Mann) says "Welcome climate scientsits to our annual meeting of the global climate conspiracy. First order of business... ice sheets! Global warming should cause ice sheets to lose hundreds of billions of tons of ice every year." Second scientist looking suspiciously like Sarah Myhre exclaims "But that's several mount everests worth of ice!"

Cartoon where Michael Mann replies "Indeed! How do we make it happen?" The scientists all think for a moment. Sarah Myhre suggests "Don't satellites use lasers to measure ice?" "So?" asks a scientist looking suspiciously like Marshall Shepherd. "Let's crank up the lasers to full power," Sarah Myhre says. "Woot!" exclaims a scientist looking a lot like Peter Gleick who high-fives a scientist who looks suspiciously like Stefan Rahmstorf, who says "go team!" Michael Mann gives a thumbs up, saying "Very Bond villain!"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

False dichotomy is forcing a choice between two options when there's a third option or both options are true. E.g., the "CO2 lags temperature in the ice core record" argument insists temperature drives CO2 so CO2 can't drive temperature, when both are true. crankyuncle.com/cranky-uncle...

Cartoon of a false dichotomy - seeing a chicken hatch out of an egg and arguing "Aha! Proof that eggs don't come from chickens!"

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John Cook @johnfocook.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

False balance is when media give equal weight to opposing voices on an issue with scientific consensus. It's misleading, giving the impression of 50:50 debate among scientists. Balanced coverage is appropriate with matters of opinion or politics but not science crankyuncle.com/cranky-uncle...

Cartoon of the mainstream media (MSM) hosting a debate between a scientist talking about the solar system and a member of the flat earth society.

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