MYTH: The importance of climate change is exagerated by scientists and environmentalists in order to get more funding.

FACT: According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (the three main greenhouse gases) have increased beyond what would be a natural cycle since 1750. This increase, in fact, is directly correlated to increased human activities that emit these greenhouse gases. IPCC says the presence of these gases today far exceeds pre-industrial values, which have been determined using ice cores spanning many hundreds of thousands of years.

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According to the IPCC, the linear warming trend over the last 50 years ─ approximately 0.13 C per decade ─ is nearly twice that of the last 100 years. Additionally, the years 1995 to 2006 are the 11 warmest years in the record of global surface temperatures, which dates back to 1850.