Climate change isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of data. Yet nearly 14% of Americans still deny that climate change is happening at all, according to a 2023 Yale Program on Climate Change Communication survey.

Here are the facts:

• Global temperatures have risen by 1.2°C since pre-industrial times, according to NASA and the IPCC.

• 2023 was the hottest year on record, and the last nine years have been the nine warmest since record-keeping began. Verified by NASA, NOAA, and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

• Atmospheric CO₂ levels are now above 420 ppm, the highest in at least 800,000 years, as confirmed by the Mauna Loa Observatory.

• Extreme weather events—heatwaves, wildfires, floods—have all increased in frequency and intensity, costing the U.S. over $165 billion in damages in 2022 alone (NOAA 2022 Climate Disaster Report).

Climate deniers often claim the science is “uncertain” or that warming is “natural.” But 99% of peer-reviewed climate studies confirm that human activity, primarily from burning fossil fuels, is driving the crisis. The American Meteorological Society, NASA, and the UN’s IPCC all stand behind this consensus.

Here’s the inconvenient truth...climate denial isn’t about science, it’s about politics and profits. Fossil fuel companies have spent decades funding misinformation campaigns, much like Big Tobacco did with cigarettes. Denial delays action, and delay makes the crisis worse. The denial challenges perception, not the data.