Skeptical Science

Hot off the press, here's the formal #debunking of recent 'official' #ClimateMisinformation authored by a group of seasoned, well-known #ClimateMisinformers working in a quasi-official capacity and distributed by the US federal government. "This is a brief review of the history of climate fingerprinting, and of the scientific progress in this field since 2009. Fingerprint studies rely on information about the patterns and timing of climate change to identify human and natural signals in observations. A July 2025 report of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) questioned the credibility of fingerprint evidence, and challenged the scientific basis for the 2009 Endangerment Finding—the legal determination that human-caused climate change poses a clear and present danger to the health and welfare of U.S. citizens. We demonstrate that the evidence for large, human-caused climate change signals was already compelling in 2009 and has strengthened significantly since then. The DOE report fails to reflect either the weight of this evidence or the progress since 2009. Human influence is now identifiable throughout Earth's climate system, and is increasingly affecting the ability of societies and ecosystems to thrive. The need and scientific rationale for the Endangerment Finding is now greater than ever." #ClimateChange#ClimateResearchhttps://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026EF009129

Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in Antarctica down by two-thirds since 2011, probably due to climate crisis The world’s largest penguin colony has declined by two-thirds since 2011, most likely because of the climate crisis, a study has revealed. Scientists said the rapid demise of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica, increased the risk of a wider ecosystem collapse. “It is an enormous population crash, equivalent to half a million breeding individuals being lost from that island,” said the leader of the research, Prof Norman Ratcliffe, a penguin ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey. The Guardian revealed in 2020 that chinstrap penguin populations were decreasing on Low in the South Shetland Islands, prompting concerns among scientists that “something is broken” in the world’s wildest ecosystem. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/07/penguin-colony-population-crash-zavodovski-island-antarctica #ClimateChange

Climate change will shape the future of Texas. Students should be allowed to learn about it. Introduction The State of Texas is in the midst of a state-government takeover of its public universities. One apparent goal is to limit what students can learn about subjects that challenge powerful special interests, particularly the fossil fuel industry. As part of this effort, the state has removed climate change courses from the core curriculum at Texas public universities. https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/texas-cant-hide-from-climate-change #ClimateChange

Guardian investigation reveals fossil fuel links of IPCC authors, with experts declaring the body’s conflict of interest policy ‘not fit for purpose’ On her first day as an expert author on the world’s most important climate reports, Prof Julia Steinberger knew nobody else, so she sat down at a stranger’s table for breakfast. “Hi, I’m Julia. I’m from the University of Lausanne,” she said. The man across the table replied: “I’m Mustafa Babiker. I work with Saudi Aramco.” Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, is responsible for more of the carbon emissions driving the escalating climate crisis than any other company in history, and the kingdom has long been a major blocker of climate action. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/21/saudi-arabia-aramco-oil-scientists-ipcc-climate-reports #ClimateChange

Includes an excellent explanation of the conceptual foundations, synoptic and predictive assessment methods of ''safe operating space'' for our planet. 'The Planetary Health Check is a yearly report on the state of our planet. It presents the most up-to-date assessments of the Planetary Boundaries, gives thorough introductions into cutting-edge science, and spotlights especially relevant aspects of our planet's health. In this 2026 edition, we place a special focus on carbon sinks and novel entities.'' https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/ #ClimateChange

Does hosting wind turbines provide farmers with additional income? Yes. Wind projects provide farmers with substantial economic benefits while allowing most land to remain in agricultural use. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates about 98 percent of land within a typical wind project remains available for farming, grazing, or other uses. Meanwhile, farmers who host turbines can r... https://skepticalscience.com/fact-brief-windrural.html

The repeal of this rule is the latest in the Trump Administration’s attempts to roll back federal climate regulation. “It is certainly possible to have policies that assume climate change will have no impacts, and that is what we are doing,” says Michael Greenstone, director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth at the University of Chicago. “But the atmosphere and the climate don't recognize those misstatements, and we will be stuck with a nastier, more virulent form of climate change.” https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/trump-power-plant-emissions-climate-health-impact/ #ClimateChange