Skeptical Science

Skeptical Science mission is simple: debunk misinformation that is harming our species’ ability to deal with climate change caused by excessive anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. They do this by presenting peer-reviewed science and explaining the techniques of climate science denial, discourses of climate delay, and climate solutions denial.

They accomplish their mission through the publication of information and resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. A key feature of these resources is an encyclopedic list of evidence-based refutations of climate misinformation. Skeptical Science is considered an authoritative resource by the climate scientist community for rebutting climate misinformation, and is often listed by media sources alongside authoritative sources such as NASA and the IPCC.

Skeptical Science are proactive with public engagement activities, making their climate communication more accessible and engaging to the public. This includes development of smartphone apps, providing interactive access to climate science and critical thinking content. Team members regularly conduct presentations and workshops for various groups including scientific groups, students, and environmental NGOs. The team developed a Massive Open Online Course in collaboration with the University of Queensland and continues to provide support for this course, offering pupil interaction, moderation, and ongoing content curation.

The Skeptical Science community consists of a global team of volunteers. Volunteers 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. Volunteers from all over the world have translated selected content into more than 20 different languages. By far most of this work is done in the volunteer contributor's spare time with some project-related tasks done via paid contract on an as needed basis. Everybody helps as much as time allows and where their interests take them.

All original material published by Skeptical Science undergoes an internal peer-review process, via shared drafts of blog posts and rebuttals for others to comment on or for collaboration in the writing. Readers can suggest changes to published rebuttals through a Google-form which are then discussed internally and acted upon as required.