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Introduction

SkS Homepage

Skeptical Science (SkS) is a science education website with international reach founded by John Cook in 2007. The main purpose of SkS is to debunk misconceptions and misinformation about human-caused climate change and features a database that currently has more than 200 rebuttals based on peer-reviewed literature. SkS has evolved from a one-person operation to a team project with volunteers from around the globe. The Skeptical Science team also actively contribute to published research, with one of the highlights being the often cited 97% consensus paper published in 2013.

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Skeptical Science Team

SkS Team

Many people from around the globe make valuable contributions to Skeptical Science. They write blog posts, maintain rebuttals, create graphics, or author useful software tools. Furthermore, they contribute by moderating the comments sections, editing and proofreading posts, sharing information with visitors, responding to emails, and providing technical support. There are also many regular commenters whose feedback has helped to improve and hone the website's content. Volunteers from all over the world have translated selected content into more than 20 different languages. All of this work is done in the volunteer contributors’ spare time and everybody helps as much as time allows and where their interests take them. Click on the picture to head to the Welcome Page on Skeptical Science!

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Skeptical Science History

Since its creation in 2007 a lot has happened on Skeptical Science. Clicking on the buttons will take you to related material on the Skeptical Science website!

2007

Skeptical Science (SkS) goes live with John Cook publishing his rebuttal database in July 2007.

 

2008

Twenty-something blog posts get published in what John Cook called a pretty boring year.

 

Skeptical Science becomes active on Facebook and Twitter. Translations are now possible.

 

2010

The introduction of three levels of complexity for the rebuttals is pivotal as the author team is born.

 

More than 580 blog posts get written by 85 authors and SkS wins the Eureka Prize from the Australian museum.

 

2012

SkS continues to increase its reach with research summaries, detailing the history of climate science and many other offerings.

 

2013

Members of the SkS team publish a study finding a 97% consensus among papers stating a position on human-caused global warming.

 

2014

The SkS-team keeps publishing research papers and runs the „97hours of consensus“ campaign.

 

2015

Collaborating with the University of Queensland the MOOC Denial101x gets launched.

 

2016

SkS receives the „Friends of the Planet award“ from NCSE and members meet in San Francisco during the AGU Fall Meeting.

 

2017

Skeptical Science celebrates its 10th Birthday and we can now track daily rebuttal views to better gauge interest in them.

 

2018

Team members contribute to the IPCC 1.5°C report and more myth-debunking resources are published.

 

2019

Our consensus paper published in 2013 hits one million downloads in July – not bad for a citizens‘ science project!

 

 

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Translations

Translator teams 2020

Since translation capabilities were added to SkS at the end of 2009, selected content has been translated into more than 20 languages by teams of volunteers working together across the globe. The individuals and teams tackling translations decide what to translate. Rebuttals are the area offering the most translations.

Translation teams have access to shared online folders in which they can prepare and proofread translations for selected content, making this a highly collaborative activity. When people voice an interest in helping with translations they can either work with others they already know or they can join an existing team for their language. The blog post Shining a spotlight on translations and translation teams published in June 2020 outlines the many translation related activities people can contribute to: blog posts, rebuttals, and handbooks are just three of several options available.

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About John Cook

John Cook originally earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Queensland, achieving a First Class Honors with a major in physics. He obtained a PhD in cognitive psychology at the University of Western Australia, with the thesis "Closing the “consensus gap” by communicating the scientific consensus on climate change and countering misinformation”. Currently, he is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, with a research focus on developing communication and educational strategies to counter misinformation.

The roots of Skeptical Science can be traced back to early 2007, when Cook decided to create a private database as a resource to more easily counter the arguments from family members regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW). He described the backstory in a Guardian article in 2011:

"My exploration of climate change denial began innocuously enough – namely some vigorous discussions with sceptical family members. This provoked me to dig a little deeper into the science (no one wants to lose an argument with their father-in-law), but before I knew it, I had wandered into a bewildering labyrinth of raging online debates and bottomless pits of misinformation. How to make sense of it all?
 
At this point, my inner-computer geek asserted itself and I began constructing a database of climate 'sceptic' arguments. To cut to the truth of each argument, I made peer-reviewed science the ultimate authority. There's no higher standard than evidence-based research conducted by experts, which is then rigorously scrutinised by other experts. As I began to piece together the various pieces, a clear picture began to emerge."

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MOOC Denial101x

denial1010x

Since April 2015, SkS has offered the massive open online course (MOOC) “Denial101x: Making sense of climate science denial”. This online course is a collaboration between the Skeptical Science team and the UQx team at the University of Queensland. The 60 lectures and 40 expert interviews explain the basics of climate science while addressing common climate myths from “global warming stopped in 1998”, to “global warming is caused by the sun”, to “climate impacts are nothing to worry about”.

By learning the techniques of science denial, students acquire the critical thinking needed to identify the fallacies associated with a given myth. Finally, armed with all this knowledge, participants learn about the psychology of misinformation. This is intended to equip them to effectively respond to climate misinformation. As of 2020, the MOOC has had more than 40,000 participants from over 180 countries. Members from the SkS-team provide assistance in and moderate the MOOC’s online discussion forum.

 

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Abstract

Skeptical Science (SkS) is a website with international reach founded by John Cook in 2007. The main purpose of SkS is to debunk misconceptions and misinformation about human-caused climate change and features a database that currently has more than 200 rebuttals based on peer-reviewed literature. Over the years, SkS has evolved from a one-person operation to a team project with science-minded volunteers from around the globe. The Skeptical Science team also actively contribute to published research, with a highlight being the often cited 97% consensus paper published in 2013 (Cook et al. 2013) for which team members content-analysed about 12,000 abstracts in a study whose publication fee was crowd-funded by readers of the website.

 

The SkS author community formed in 2010 in response to the proposal to expand existing rebuttals to three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Since then, team members regularly collaborate to write and review rebuttal and blog articles for the website. Volunteer translators from many countries have translated selected content into more than 20 languages including booklets such as The Debunking Handbook, The Uncertainty Handbook or The Consensus Handbook. In addition to the already mentioned consensus study, team members have helped with other research projects initiated by John Cook such as the efforts to train a computer to detect and classify climate change misinformation. Another significant project is the Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC) “Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” in collaboration with the University of Queensland, for which the SkS team produced numerous video lectures and for which forum moderators were recruited. Outreach activities such as the “97 Hours of Consensus” were crowdsourced with team members collecting and organising content and providing technical support.

Skeptical Science (SkS) - (accessed November 7, 2020)

 

 

Skeptical Science (SkS) is a website with international reach founded by John Cook in 2007. The main purpose of SkS is to debunk misconceptions and misinformation about human-caused climate change and features a database that currently has more than 200 rebuttals based on peer-reviewed literature. Over the years, SkS has evolved from a one-person operation to a team project with science-minded volunteers from around the globe. The Skeptical Science team also actively contribute to published research, with a highlight being the often cited 97% consensus paper published in 2013 (Cook et al. 2013) for which team members content-analysed about 12,000 abstracts in a study whose publication fee was crowd-funded by readers of the website.

 

The SkS author community formed in 2010 in response to the proposal to expand existing rebuttals to three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Since then, team members regularly collaborate to write and review rebuttal and blog articles for the website. Volunteer translators from many countries have translated selected content into more than 20 languages including booklets such as The Debunking Handbook, The Uncertainty Handbook or The Consensus Handbook. In addition to the already mentioned consensus study, team members have helped with other research projects initiated by John Cook such as the efforts to train a computer to detect and classify climate change misinformation. Another significant project is the Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC) “Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” in collaboration with the University of Queensland, for which the SkS team produced numerous video lectures and for which forum moderators were recruited. Outreach activities such as the “97 Hours of Consensus” were crowdsourced with team members collecting and organising content and providing technical support.

Skeptical Science (SkS) - (accessed November 7, 2020)

 

 

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