Category: Online Special

• CLAIM

A TikToker @the_solar_enthusiast1 on March 8 claimed that people with solar panels on their roofs are highly susceptible to thunder strikes during the rainy season.

The video when transcribed reads: “This is a public announcement. And it is for people who have solar panels on their roofs. So this is the rainy season again and if you have panels on your roof, you are highly susceptible to thunder strikes. Trust me, this has nothing to do with your village people in any way. So what do you need to do?

“You need to install what you call a lightning or thunder arrestor. You need to do this ASAP because if the god of thunder decides to visit you, ‘you are gone’”.

The video had 3,053 likes, 160 comments and 3,328 shares.

Verification

What are thunder and lightning?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines lightning as a “giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground”. It adds that “when the opposite charges build up enough, the insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity, known as lightning”.

National Geographic describes lightning as an “electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves, adding that most lightning occurs within the clouds”.

Lightning is described to be extremely hot and can heat the air around it to temperatures five times hotter than the sun’s surface. This heat causes the surrounding air to expand rapidly and vibrate, creating the thunder we usually hear after a lighting flash is sighted.

National Weather Service defines thunder as “the sound caused by a nearby flash of lightning and can be heard for a distance of about 10 miles from the lightning strike”. It adds that “thunder is created when lightning passes through the air”.

This means that thunder and lightning happen almost at the same time, but one sees the flash of the lightning before one hears the thunder.

As a Solar Panel Homeowner, Are You At Risk of Thunder Strikes?

There is no evidence that supports the common myth that having a solar panel on your roof makes you susceptible to thunder or lightning strikes.

There are, however, several pieces of evidence that show that neither solar panels nor the metal racking of the panels attract lightning or thunder strikes.

The Solar Nerd, in an article titled ‘Do solar panels increase the risk of a lightning strike?’ stated solar panels do not attract lightning, adding that installing solar panels and the required metal racking on one’s roof doesn’t increase the risk of their home being hit by lightning.

The article explains that lightning can strike any object such as trees, water, the ground, or rocks, regardless of whether it is an electrical conductor or not, adding that “lightning is definitely a risk to homeowners, but adding solar panels to your home doesn’t change that risk”.

The article also cited a quote from weather.gov which read, “Height, pointy shape, and isolation are the dominant factors controlling where a lightning bolt will strike. The presence of metal makes absolutely no difference where lightning strikes. Mountains are made of stone but get struck by lightning many times a year. When lightning threatens, take proper protective action immediately by seeking a safe shelter – don’t waste time removing metal. While metal does not attract lightning, it does conduct it so stay away from metal fences, railing, bleachers, etc.”

The article also explains that although “lightning is a discharge of static electricity that equalizes the electrical potential between two objects”, the fear that electricity in solar panels increases lightning risk is untrue as solar panels do not generate static electricity but instead create current electricity, which means that “solar panels will generate very little electricity under the thick cloud cover of a thunderstorm”.

Paradise Energy Solutions points out that lightning strikes on a solar panel can be either direct or indirect. Direct strikes, which are rare, strike the solar panels or inverter directly, while indirect strikes, which are more common, occur when lightning strikes near the solar system. When this happens, “a branch current from the bolt can flow over the solar panels, resulting in high-voltage surges which can damage various system components”.

It is, however, observed that although solar panels do not attract lightning or thunder strikes, a home solar panel system must be well grounded.

Rating

False – Thunder and lightning can strike any object including, mountains, oceans, trees, and buildings. There is no evidence that solar panels attract lightning or that putting solar panels on your roof increases the risk of getting hit by lightning.

This fact-check was produced by Justina Asishana, a Journalist with The Nation Newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.

• CLAIM

A video posted on TikTok on the 24th of March by Creative Society stated that Carbon dioxide (CO2) stays in the atmosphere for two years.

The video had 1,124 likes, 92 comments, 141 adds to favorites, and 254 shares.

The video when transcribed reads: “Three facts why climate change is not man-made. Fact 1 – CO2 stays in the atmosphere for only two years and then it is destroyed by lightning.

” Fact 2 – the main greenhouse gas is water vapor, making two-thirds of the contribution to global warming. Fact 3 – Antarctica and Greenland’s glaciers are melting from the bottom up because of the increased heat from inside the earth and not CO2.”

Verification

What is CO2?

NASA defines Carbon dioxide (CO2) as “an important heat-trapping gas, or greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions”.

It is one of the most commonly produced greenhouse gases. The United States Geographical Survey (USGS) states that atmospheric carbon dioxide is produced by natural and human activities. It adds that “natural sources of carbon dioxide include most animals, which exhale carbon dioxide as a waste product while human activities that lead to carbon dioxide emissions come primarily from energy production, including burning coal, oil, or natural gas”.

How Long Does Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Stay in the Atmosphere?

Carbon Dioxide is said to stay in the atmosphere for a long time. According to NASA Global Climate Change, CO2 stays in the atmosphere for 300 to 1,000 years.

An explanatory article published by The Guardian in 2012 states that “between 65% and 80% of CO2 released into the air dissolves into the ocean over a period of 20 to 200 years while the rest percentage of CO2 is removed by slower processes that take up to several hundreds of thousands of years”. The article posited that once in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can continue to affect the climate for thousands of years.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that “some of the excess carbon dioxide is absorbed quickly by the ocean surface, while some will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years due to the very slow process by which carbon is transferred to ocean sediments”.

Is Carbon Dioxide Destroyed by Lightning?

We did not find any evidence or research showing that carbon dioxide is destroyed by lightning. A research article on Science.org states that “lightning increases the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse itself by producing nitric oxide (NO) which leads to atmospheric chemistry that forms ozone (O3) and the atmosphere’s primary oxidant, the hydroxyl radical (OH)”.

Another article by Science Alert states that “both lightning bolts and the weaker, invisible electrical charges around them can produce the pollutant-catching oxidants hydroxyl (OH) and hydroperoxyl (HO2), which can also remove gases such as methane and carbon monoxide from the atmosphere”.

However, Environment Journal stated that an increase in carbon dioxide and warming of the land surface causes stronger updrafts which are more likely to produce lightning. It adds that “in a climate with double the amount of CO2, fewer lightning storms may be seen overall”.

Verdict: False: CO2 stays in the atmosphere longer than two years and is not destroyed by lightning.

Claim 2: Is the main greenhouse gas water vapor and does it make two-thirds of the contribution to global warming?

Water vapor is classified as one of the key greenhouse gases. The key greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases, ground-level ozone, water vapor, and aerosols.

Water vapor is said to be the most abundant greenhouse gas. It “differs from other greenhouse gases as changes in its atmospheric concentrations are not linked to human activities directly”.

Therefore, as greenhouse gas concentrations increase and global temperatures rise, the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere also increases which further amplifies the warming effect.

While water vapor may be the most dominant greenhouse gas by mass and volume, it certainly is not the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Water vapor is part of an amplifying effect. Unlike water vapor that returns to Earth as precipitation within one week of entering the atmosphere, CO2 stays in the atmosphere for between 50-200 years and this contributes to warming the Earth.

NASA states that increased water vapor doesn’t cause global warming. Instead, it is a consequence of it. It further states that increased water vapor in the atmosphere amplifies the warming caused by other greenhouse gases. Water vapor is the only greenhouse gas whose concentration increases because the atmosphere is warming, and causes it to warm even more.

Claim 2 Verdict: Partly False: Water vapor indeed is one of the main greenhouse gases but it is not responsible for global warming as it doesn’t last long in the atmosphere.

Claim 3: Are Antarctica and Greenland glaciers melting from the bottom up because of the increased heat from inside the earth and not CO2?

NASA sea level change states that the glaciers are melted by heat from above and below simultaneously.

It states that during warm summer months, meltwater from glaciers bores holes through the ice and makes its way down to the glacier bed before shooting out at the base of the glacier into the surrounding ocean. The meltwater plume, which doesn’t contain salt, rises toward the surface and mixes warm ocean water upward. This upward mixing causes more of the glacier to melt and can lead to the breaking off of large ice chunks, known as icebergs, at the front end or terminus of the glacier.

The effect of the melting has been attributed to a warmer climate which affects the ice sheets in several ways.

Meanwhile, research has shown that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have raised temperatures, which have resulted in the glaciers melting rapidly, calving off into the sea and retreating on land.

Research has also shown that the “increase in temperatures is causing more and more glaciers to melt, consequently, exposing the earth underneath”.

According to a report published in the Science Daily, “new research has also shown that carbon dioxide molecules may be also having a more direct impact on the ice that covers the planet”.

Verdict: False: CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions cause the melting of the Antarctica and Greenland glaciers, which occurs from above and below, and not just from below, as claimed by the video.

Rating

The video has one true claim, one false claim and a partly false claim.

This fact-check was produced by Justina Asishana, a Journalist with The Nation Newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.

Claim

A Twitter user @GrahamLKeegan on the 2nd of April wrote that there is no evidence of a climate crisis and that there are no climate metrics to indicate that anything unusual is happening.

His tweet read, “I cannot find any evidence of a climate crisis. No climate metrics indicate that there is anything unusual happening. Looking over a longer timescale, rather than just the late 20th Century, it is clear change is being caused by natural cycles. Cooling is imminent.”

The tweet was a response to a post by Prof Steve Austin which read, “periodic reminder: “The world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis, and counting on adaptation to limit damage is no substitute for urgently cutting greenhouse gases”

What are Climate Crisis and Climate Metrics?

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), climate crisis refers to “the serious problems that are being caused or are likely to be caused by changes in the planet’s climate”. The organisation further states that “since the 1800s, the Earth’s average temperature has increased by 1.1° C and has been causing significant damage in many parts of the world”. 

According to Dictionary.com, metrics are “a standard for measuring or evaluating something, especially one that uses figures or statistics”, while Investopedia, defines metrics as “measures of quantitative assessment commonly used for assessing, comparing, and tracking performance or production”.

The United Nations Climate Change (UNFCC) states that climate metrics “are used to quantify the contributions to climate change of emissions of different substances”. It adds that “climate metrics do not define goals and policy as they are tools that enable evaluation and implementation of multi-component policies”.

According to MSCI, some of the climate metrics include clean tech solutions, fossil fuel exposure, Climate Value-at-Risk, forward-looking indicators, low carbon transition score, emission data, and implied temperature rise amongst others.

Is there evidence of a climate crisis and climate metrics?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists in its Synthesis report released in March 2023 averred that the climate crisis, which is the impact of climate change, has caused extreme weather which has led to increased deaths. This extreme weather is evidenced by the “intensifying heatwaves, destruction of homes and millions of lives due to floods and droughts, millions of people facing hunger, and “increasingly irreversible losses” in vital ecosystems”.

Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of the Synthesis Report in a press release said that “Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in February 2022 highlighted several pieces of evidence of a climate crisis which ranged from 50% of the world’s population facing severe water shortages at some point every year, exposure to deadly heat stress, 500,000 more people being at risk of serious flooding each year, and an increase in the spread of diseases such as dengue fever in people, and in wildlife, crops, and livestock due to rising temperatures and rainfall.

The United Nations also said that water is at the centre of the climate crisis as climate change affects water in complex ways ranging from “unpredictable rainfall patterns to shrinking ice sheets, rising sea levels, floods and droughts”.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas in a press release on the state of Global Climate in 2021 report said, “Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come. Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented. Some glaciers have reached the point of no return and this will have long-term repercussions in a world in which more than 2 billion people already experience water stress.”

On Climate metrics, WMO in its report stated that 2015 to 2021 had been the warmest seven years on record, while 2021 was “only” one of the seven warmest because of a La Niña event at the start and end of the year.

The WMO report also reflected some changes in some climate metrics. “Greenhouse gas concentrations reached a global high in 2020 as the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 413.2 parts per million (ppm) globally or 149% of the pre-industrial level”. It reflected that data from specific locations indicate that the concentrations continued to increase in 2021 and early 2022, with monthly average CO2 levels at Mauna Loa in Hawaii reaching 416.45 ppm in April 2020, 419.05 ppm in April 2021, and 420.23 ppm in April 2022.”

On implied temperature rise, NOAA states that “Earth’s temperature has risen by an average of 0.14° Fahrenheit (0.08° Celsius) per decade since 1880, or about 2° F in total, with 2022 being the sixth-warmest year on record based on NOAA’s temperature data. It stated that the 2022 surface temperature was 1.55 °F (0.86 °Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average of 57.0 °F (13.9 °C) and 1.90 ˚F (1.06 ˚C) warmer than the pre-industrial period (1880-1900).”

According to World Resources Institute, the Global Carbon Project, global carbon dioxide “emissions from fossil fuels grew 1.5% in 2017, 2.1% in 2018 and are projected to grow another 0.6% in 2019”. The UNEP Emissions Gap Report stated that “temperatures have already increased 1.1°C, leaving families, homes and communities devastated”.

Rating

False: It is not true that there is no evidence of a climate crisis and that there are no climate metrics to indicate that anything unusual is happening, as several reports show the Earth’s temperature is rising and greenhouse gas emissions are increasing.

This fact-check was produced by Justina Asishana, a Journalist with The Nation Newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.