Scientists have reviewed the accuracy of stories about climate change. Recently, the scientists are collaborating with technology experts to find ways to scan and detect the internet for misleading news about climate change.
The concept is to convey scientists to have voices on the media platform and to review the precision and credibility of information. The Founder of Climate Feed Back Emmanuel Vincent revealed this project on Thursday in Chicago, as noted on The Hill News.
The project raises an awareness to report accurate news about the climate. It alerts the writers and editors of the articles to annotate the scientists' comment and put the reliable source linked to the article. It also requests writers to post to display original stories with the scientists' reports.
The misleading information includes cherry-picked half-truths, biased information, ill-defined terms and rhetorical manipulation. The websites that are being reviewed are more than just fakes.
Recently, the project listed 183 scientists as reviewers. The averages of six scientists evaluate each viral climate stories. The Climate Feedback has evaluated about 50 stories since its launch. Scientist found out the most viral stories are the ones that are fake or consider as a hoax, which usually not written by journalists.
"Computers could do the work of scanning the internet for stories, identifying which concern climate change, identifying the specific topic of each, like glacial ice, greenhouse gasses, polar bears, hurricanes, and identifying the most relevant expert reviewers," Vincent said, as noted on the Climate Feed Back official website.
The fact-checking projects give an example of "Jan.18 Chris Mooney" story in the Washington Post. The 12 scientists analyzed the article and determined that Mooney's story conveys the US agencies' declaration of 2016 as the hottest year on record. Scientists concluded that this article is accurate and insightful, which provides the context essential to understanding the importance of man-made global warming.