Top 10 Favorite Climate Change Mic Drops

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Originally published on The Climate Reality Project.

Someone hand these heroes a medal for standing up for scientific facts.

Ah, social media. Where anyone, and everyone, with an opinion can (and does) publicize their thoughts to the world. And when it comes to climate change and global warming, things can get… well, heated.

Despite the fact that over 97 percent of climate scientists agree climate change is real and caused by humans, some individuals continue to publicly doubt and deny the facts on social media.

Fortunately, there are heroes sticking up for scientific fact, and in the process, have mastered the art of the rebuttal. Here are 10 of our favorite “climate change mic-drops” – when the response was so perfect that nothing further was necessary.

1. Bill Nye

Want a quick way to close down a climate denier? Put some money on the line. Bill Nye offered up $20,000 of his own money to climate change deniers Joe Bastardi and Marc Morano in a mic-dropping climate change bet. The first wager, worth $10,000, contends that 2016 will be among the top-10 hottest years ever recorded. The Science Guy also bet Joe and Marc another $10,000 that the decade 2010 to 2020 will prove to be the hottest decade ever recorded.

You can probably bet what happened next: nothing. Neither Bastardi or Morano took him up on the bet.

2. NASA

After news broke of this high-rolling bet, climate change deniers swarmed on Bill Nye’s Facebook page. Fortunately, scientists at NASA Climate Change stepped in with their own mic drop to set the record straight.

3. Brian Cox

Physicist Brian Cox spent more than a reasonable amount of time explaining the reality of climate change to avowed Australian climate denier Senator Malcolm Roberts during British TV program Q&A. But pointing to a graph showing the clearly upward trend in warming wouldn’t convince Roberts. So he decided it was time to drop the mic. On national television.

“NASA? The people who landed men on the moon. The accusation that NASA, the Australians, the Met Office in UK, everybody has collaborated to manipulate global temperature data is quite … [so] they’ve all manipulated it in the same way and accidentally got to the same answer, is that what you’re saying?”

4. John Oliver (with help from Bill Nye)

John Oliver perfectly demonstrated what a “fair and balanced” climate change debate would look like… if the number of debaters were statistically representative of how many scientists believe climate change is real versus how many don’t. The results are obvious: when you take away the false constraints of a TV news program, climate science isn’t up for debate.

5. Governor Jerry Brown

.@JerryBrownGov to climate science denier @RealBenCarson: “Climate change is much bigger than partisan politics.” pic.twitter.com/NpsbvlvpEl

— Gov. Brown Press Ofc (@GovPressOffice) September 10, 2015

Now here’s an “old school” mic drop – this one happened on paper. In 2015, Governor Jerry Brown of California was dealing with a catastrophic drought across his state – a drought that was significantly affected by climate change. When then-presidential candidate Ben Carson denied human-caused climate change, Governor Brown sent a letter – and a flash drive loaded with the entirety of the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report from the Fifth Assessment Report.

6. Astrophysicist Dr. Katie J. Mack

The existence of Twitter is forever validated by the following exchange. pic.twitter.com/f3TciHPFFh

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 16, 2016

The beauty of Twitter is that everyone can share their thoughts. Just be ready for a mic drop when an astrophysicist shoots back at a troll. Even author J. K. Rowling had to show her appreciation.

7. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Not to leave all the climate science mic drops to Bill Nye and Dr. Mack, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson published an epic rebuttal to a climate change denying columnist in the Idaho State Journal.

8. Jimmy Kimmel

Denying the facts doesn’t mean they still aren’t true. Case in point: yogurt exists. Jimmy Kimmel put climate change denial into a new scenario to show how the argument fails to hold water.

9. “Pope Francis”

Pope Francis has caused a sensation among the faithful since becoming leader of the Catholic church. But can he rhyme? In this video, a fictionalized Papa drops the mic on climate deniers with some sick beats to back him up.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Fossil fuels are a bust. Clean energy is right on the money. Retweet if you agree with @Schwarzenegger! pic.twitter.com/REZFD35HxL

— Climate Reality (@ClimateReality) February 9, 2016

In an honest and straightforward Facebook post, former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger confronts the climate change deniers who comment every time he talks about renewable energy or global warming. Turns out, the Governator doesn’t care about your opinion – he cares about the facts, and having a safe, healthy future. Mic dropped.

Get the Facts about Climate Change

Do you have another favorite mic-drop moment in a climate change exchange? Tweet us @ClimateReality to let us know!

If you want to verse yourself in climate science so that you can be ready for your own mic-drop moment download The 12 Questions Every Climate Activists Hears and What To Say e-book, where we explain how to answer some of the most common questions and misunderstandings about climate change.

Reprinted with permission.