NASA Claims It Targets And Corrects Armageddon-Like Comments On Facebook

Yembrick said the agency did not have any particular rules regarding which comments to target and which to leave alone — NASA just goes after the most blatant mischaracterizations of its climate data, he added.

The NASA Climate Change Facebook account received some push back this week when it entered into a spat with several Bill Nye “The Science Guy” Facebook followers over issues ranging from whether NASA “fudges” its climate data to whether other planets experience global warming.

After a remark poking fun at global warming skeptics, one of Nye’s followers responded by suggesting NASA has confirmed fossil fuels are actually cooling the planet.

“Despite NASA confirming that fossil fuels are actually cooling the planet’s temperature, and that there’s more ice than in the last century in the polar caps,” the targeted comment reads. “And the fact that the so-called rises of the sea levels have not materialized, and that any real scientist doesn’t back up man-made climate change at all, since it’s a cycle that has existed even before we did.”  

NASA Climate Change jumped into the mix and replied: “Do not misrepresent NASA. Fossil fuels are not cooling the planet.”

When someone else suggested Earth is not the only planet warming, NASA replied: “There is a small amount of evidence of seasonal changes in parts of the solar system, but there is no evidence of global warming anywhere — except on Earth.”

The person the agency addressed in this instance had previously suggested in the same discussion that “the debate is not about if the planet is warmer, but why the planet is warming.”

NASA did not address other comments on Nye’s page that seemingly stoke fear on climate change — in particular, one follower said the burning of fossil fuels may eventually render human beings “extinct by the end of the century.” 

The agency did not respond when the TheDCNF asked if these comments are worth rebutting — or at the very least, qualifying.

NASA issued a press statement Friday justifying the agency’s social media policy.

“Direct engagement is something we value and support at NASA,” the statement read. “It is a key component to our successful social media strategy,” and it is a way for NASA to correct misrepresentations of its data, the statement adds.

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