CLAIM: The Wide Awake Media, an online Television, claimed on its verified Twitter handle that solar activity is the cause of climate change and exonerated carbon emissions by humans (CO2) of any culpability in the changes.
The online media said gas (CO2) makes just 0.4 percent of the atmosphere as against, at least, 95 percent coming from solar activity, which is a natural source.
“Solar activity is the cause of changes in the Earth’s climate, not a trace gas (CO2) which makes up just 0.04% of the atmosphere, of which at least 95% comes from natural sources, not human ‘carbon emissions’.
“#ClimateScam #ClimateCult #NetZero #Agenda21 #Agenda2030,” it said.
Solar activity is the cause of changes in the Earth’s climate, not a trace gas (CO2) which makes up just 0.04% of the atmosphere, of which at least 95% comes from natural sources, not human “carbon emissions”.#ClimateScam #ClimateCult #NetZero #Agenda21 #Agenda2030 pic.twitter.com/zwmyQh25iM
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) April 19, 2023
The Wide Awake Media claims on its Twitter page to be a platform for “the News and commentary on the long-term agenda for global control that’s unfolding before our eyes, and the mass awakening that’s occurring as a result of it.
The post was shared on April 19 and had between the date and May 2 enjoyed 1523 retweets, 2155 likes, and almost 69,000 views with 61 comments.
This tweet is accompanied by a video documentary with views of some climate change skeptics.
VERIFICATION: Climate Change is the defining issue of the present time and the world is at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale.
Meanwhile, there have been divergent views on the existence and causes of this new climate order. While some hold an opinion that the changes are caused by natural sources, overwhelming evidence suggests it is majorly by human activity.
For instance, a study by the United Nations, a renowned global intergovernmental organisation, revealed that fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. This is a sharp contrast to the argument put forward by the Wide Awake Media in its post.
As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, the UN said, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature. This poses many risks to human beings and all other forms of life on Earth.
Similarly, a Canadian site on Climate Change blames human activity as the main cause of climate change. People, according to this climate website, burn fossil fuels and convert land from forests to agriculture. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, people have burned more and more fossil fuels and changed vast areas of land from forests to farmland.
Solar activity and other natural sources
Climate scientists maintain that since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which has changed the earth’s climate.
They observe that natural processes, such as changes in the sun’s energy (solar activity) and volcanic eruptions, also affect the earth’s climate. It is noted, however, that these natural sources do not explain the warming, observed over the last century.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that scientists have pieced together a record of the earth’s climate by analysing a number of indirect measures of climate, such as ice cores, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, and by studying changes in the earth’s orbit around the sun.
This record, it said, shows that the climate varies naturally over a wide range of time scales, but this variability does not explain the observed warming since the 1950s.
“Rather, it is extremely likely ( > 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming. Human activities have contributed substantially to climate change through Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Reflectivity or Absorption of the Sun’s Energy
Variations in Solar Activity
Changes in the sun’s energy output can affect the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the earth’s surface. While these changes can influence the earth’s climate, solar variations have played little role in the climate changes observed in recent decades. Satellites have been measuring the amount of energy the earth receives from the sun since 1978. These measurements show no net increase in the sun’s output, even as global surface temperatures have risen.
CONCLUSION: The claim that solar activity is the cause of the changes in the climate and not carbon emissions (CO2) is FALSE. Evidence shows that the influence of solar activity on the earth’s climate is little and that it shows no net increase as a result of the sun’s energy output.
This fact-check was produced by BONews Service with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.