Five Ways Joe Rogan Misleads Listeners about Climate Change

Monday, May 25, 2026

In an October episode of his podcast, Rogan interviewed two octogenarian fringe climate contrarians, Richard Lindzen and William Happer, who together have been spreading climate misinformation since at least 2012. For over two hours, the trio discussed climate myths and conspiracy theories, many of them identical to the misinformation Lindzen and Happer were peddling well over a decade ago. As Yale Climate Connections reported earlier this year, about one in five U.S. adults and 37% of adults under 30 say they regularly get news from social media influencers -- which means they're likely consuming a lot of myths about climate change.

Posted by Dbt2 at 09:37 AM | 1 COMMENT | permalink

I asked John Cook, a cognitive scientist at the University of Melbourne studying climate misinformation, how people can distinguish truth from fiction. I worked alongside Cook in the 2010s to debunk climate myths at the volunteer-run website Skeptical Science.

Comments

FTA: In a new book chapter, Cook and coauthor Dominik Stecula outline the five common techniques of science denial.

Fake experts: presenting an unqualified person or institution as a source of credible information
Logical fallacies: arguments where the conclusion doesn't logically follow from the premise
Impossible expectations: demanding unrealistic standards of certainty before acting on the science
Cherry-picking: carefully selecting data that appear to confirm one position while ignoring other data that contradicts that position
Conspiracy theories: an explanation for a situation that rejects the consensus view in favor of a secret plot by powerful groups with a malevolent goal

#1 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-05-25 09:38 AM