Climate

Does Project 2025 call for closing the National Hurricane Center? No, that's not true: Nowhere in Project 2025's book, "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise," does it say that. Instead, it calls for a review of the National Hurricane Center's work. It does recommend breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, under which…

Do two reels posted to Facebook authentically show clips of tornadoes that occurred in Dubai and Canada? No, that's not true: Experts told Lead Stories that the twisters shown in the clips were fake and 100 percent AI-generated content. There are prominent elements in the videos that indicate manipulation and editing have been used to create them. One claim originated…

Did humans artificially create Antarctica's ice cap in order to boost energy emissions from frozen metals? No, that's not true: Scientists say Antarctica began freezing about 34 million years ago due to a drop in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That's about 28 million years before the earliest humans walked the Earth and about 34 million years before artificial refrigeration…

Does an authentic screenshot of the FOX Business website show FOX reporting that "Tim Walz's Communist Agenda" includes unsupervised female health decisions and school lunches for unemployed minors? No, that's not true: It's satire but several online commenters interpreted as a real screenshot. The image was posted previously to a subreddit focused on U.S. political humor. The claim appeared in…

Did data from December 2023 show that Arctic sea ice had soared to its "highest level for 21 years," thus disproving global warming and climate change? No, that's not true: The blog that made this claim cherry-picked genuine data, a senior research scientist told Lead Stories. While it is true that the total area of the Arctic Ocean covered by…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris suggest that young people "should not have children due to climate change," as implied by a post on X? No, that's not true: In the clip, she described how "young leaders" define climate anxiety. She did not suggest that young people "should not have children." A version of the claim appeared in a post on…

Did Taylor Swift announce they were scheduling a fundraising concert with Beyonce to support Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate? No, that's not true: Neither the singers, nor Harris has announced a fundraising concert. The stadium named in the article announcing the concert shows no such scheduled event on its website. The claim appeared in an article (archived here)…

Did GovTrack delete only Vice President Kamala Harris' 2019 report card, which rated her as the most liberal senator that year? No, that's not true: GovTrack told Lead Stories that it consolidated and deleted everyone's 2019 report card. Her 2020 report card, which covers two years, rated Harris as the second most liberal member of the Senate. Founder Joshua Tauberer…

Is a video authentically showing a "tornado storm" in Chicago on July 16, 2024? No, that's not true: The tornados in this video appear fake and a college animation professor told Lead Stories that "portions of the video montage have AI or VFX elements added." Multiple credible media organizations reported tornado-like storms in Chicago on July 15, 2024 -- not…

Does a video compilation show Hurricane Beryl in Jamaica on July 3, 2024? No, that's not true: The compilation consists of older, unrelated video clips from intense weather events in other places. None of the footage was shot in Jamaica. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 3, 2024. It was captioned: Hurricane Beryl Caribbean…