According to Anderson - the “top climate specialist” in question - the quote from Grit Post that Thunberg shared was a “complete fabrication” of his words. In this case, though, Thunberg has been both the subject and spreader of misinformation. These claims often target her credibility as a climate activist, such as the false claim that she is on the payroll of billionaire George Soros. Thunberg has been the subject of viral false claims before, as we’ve written. The tweet was, moreover, quoting from an article and not her own words. shared a post to Instagram which read: “Greta Thunberg’s beginning of the end of the world prediction was for today, June 21st.” His post received more than 99,000 likes.īut Thunberg’s 2018 tweet did not say that humanity would be wiped out in five years, but rather that continued use of fossil fuels over the next five years would lead to human extinction at some point. “Greta Thunberg’s apocalyptic tweet proves false exactly 5 years later to the day,” read a Facebook post from the Young America’s Foundation.ĭonald J. With the fifth anniversary of her tweet recently passed, social media posts have falsely claimed that Thunberg predicted human extinction would occur by 2023. Thunberg’s tweet said: “A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.” Greta Thunberg, a young climate activist from Sweden who rose to prominence when she organized the 2018 School Strike for Climate movement, quoted from the Grit Post article in a since-deleted June 2018 tweet. Greta Thunberg speaks about climate change at the United Nations in 2019. The following month, the now-defunct news website Grit Post cited the Forbes piece in an article that misinterpreted Anderson’s lecture and had the inaccurate headline, “Top Climate Scientist: Humans Will Go Extinct if We Don’t Fix Climate Change by 2023.” Among the dangers Anderson highlighted was the depletion of floating ice in the Arctic.Īnderson warned that an urgent effort is needed to stop producing carbon pollution and remove it from the atmosphere within five years to preserve any permanent ice in the Arctic, Forbes reported. Anderson, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Harvard University, delivered a lecture in 2018 at the University of Chicago about the effects of climate change on the planet. But recent social media posts have distorted Thunberg’s tweet to falsely claim she predicted human extinction by 2023. Climate activist Greta Thunberg then shared a tweet that misquoted the professor. A Harvard University professor warned in 2018 that steps were needed over the next five years to reduce carbon pollution to preserve Arctic ice.

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