&Quot;Climate Change&Quot;

Does this collection of images and this caption accurately portray protests against Austrian COVID-19 mandates between November and December of 2021, in the capital of Vienna? No, that's not true: Online reverse image searches reveal that two out of the four images depicted in this post do not even correlate to protests against COVID-19 mandates. These images are miscaptioned and…

Did Nancy Pelosi buy a $25,000,000 mansion in Florida? No, that's not true: "This is completely false," the Speaker of the House's deputy chief of staff told Lead Stories. The real estate broker who listed the house told Lead Stories that neither Pelosi nor anyone related to her purchased the home. The claim appeared as a post (archived here) where…

Was Gov. Gavin Newsom injured and incapacitated by the Moderna booster shot? No, that's not true: California Gov. Newsom said at a live event on November 9, 2021, that he did receive the booster shot on October 27, 2021, but that he had no side effects and spent two weeks out of the public eye working in his office, spending…

Does a widely shared Facebook post with an image of dozens of jets show the aircraft used by attendees of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland? No, that's not true: Although some reports have estimated that more than 400 jets were used to transport the conference's high-profile guests, the picture used to make…

Did conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweet that liberals "make up anatomical parts like the 'clitoris'"? No, that's not true. A counterfeit Shapiro tweet that claims he doesn't believe part of the female anatomy is part of a series of satirical posts trolling him. The claim appeared as a post (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on November 1,…

Do private landowners lose control of their property when tourism promoters and/or history buffs get a region of their state designated a National Heritage Area? No, that's not true: There is no evidence National Heritage Areas empower federal or local authorities to take control of lands inside the map lines drawn to highlight areas of historic or cultural interest. The…

Are electric vehicles having a negative effect on all societies around the world? No, that's not true: The Nature article that the Facebook user links to as support doesn't even agree with the user's claims that electric vehicles (EVs) do more harm than good. The math is correct, but the conclusion the Facebook user came to is not justified. The…

Did New Zealand's Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette publish a paragraph on "Coal Consumption Affecting Climate" in the Science Notes and News section of the paper back on August 14, 1912? It's TRUE! This paragraph predicting the effect that burning billions of tons of coal could have on the climate did appear in this New Zealand newspaper…

Is Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, on his way to becoming a trillionaire, thereby having more than three times the wealth needed to "save the planet"? No, that's not true: Although Bezos is the world's richest person with a net worth of more than $200 billion, his potential trillionaire status is just a projection. Additionally, the…

Is President Biden cutting 90% of red meat from your diet, limiting you to four pounds a year and one burger per month? No, that's not true. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson told Lead Stories there's no such proposal. The Biden administration does not have a new climate requirement that would limit the amount of red meat Americans can…