The consensus within the scientific community is that human activity fuels global climate change, but a video clip shared on Instagram on Nov. 13 featuring a known climate skeptic claims people aren’t to blame.
In the video, Piers Corbyn, an astrophysicist, said heat waves are caused by “certain circulation patterns” from solar activity and phases of the moon.
“These things are dictated by solar activity and the moon,” Corbyn said in the video, an excerpt from his 2010 appearance on Russia Today, a Russian state-funded news channel. “They have nothing to do with mankind.”
He accused people who say human activity contributes to climate change of “just trying to make money.”
The Instagram post’s caption says, “this guy gets it, pay attention,” and includes hashtags such as #globalwarminghoax and #climatechangehoax.
The Instagram post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Climate scientists have said the sun and moon influence the Earth’s climate, but not enough to contribute to the large-scale climate changes of the last several decades.
PolitiFact has rated False similar statements that minimize human activity’s role in climate change.
NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency determined that humans began to significantly impact the Earth’s climate during the Industrial Revolution, when manufacturing and burning fossil fuels led to the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
About 200 scientific organizations have concluded that human activity drives climate change.
Corbyn, brother of British politician Jeremy Corbyn, received a degree in astrophysics in 1981. He launc …
No, climate change isn’t driven by solar activity and lunar phases – PolitiFact
