Climate change portal/climate denial review

In response to an analysis by BBC on climate change denial, this projects aims to systematically remove climate denial from Wikipedia language versions by working with local communities, and where capacity is lacking, by directly editing articles. Find translations by inserting the link into Google translate.

Languages with problems detected

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Language editions with problem; progress table
Language Climate denial? Blatant denial removed? Other text edits? Figures updated? Local collaboration?[A] Maintenance Templates?
Afrikaans (Translation)
75 Page views/day
Yes Featured article since 2013 Conversation opened. Contacted WMSD editor too. Article is being updated from Dutch version (which saw a 2022 update)
Farsi (Translation)
360 Page views/day
Minor Yes Asked help native speaker who has translated in the past. Posted on talk, requesting a sentence and a paragraph to be changed. User:Mpj7 has started responding
Croatian (Translation)
74 Page views/day
Yes Yes-Deleted "Critique of the thesis on global warming and its causes" Some paragraphs in the lead still have a denial perspective. N/A Koreanovsky hopes to translate the English article
Chinese Translation
500 pageviews/day
Yes Needed edits - Update lead to AR6 but Chinese translation not on IPCC site yet - Section 3.2 - Other Theories, mentioning solar activity as possible explanation to global warming

Conspiracy theories have been been deleted.

Note in English left on talk page. zh:WP:VPD#Discussion_on_Meta-wiki On Dec.8 a maintenance template was placed below the “Other Theories” heading stating that “the accuracy of this chapter is controversial”.

Proposed edits/deletions have been posted in Chinese on local talk page, and have been discussed on this Talk page. Asked another WMSD to join discussion 16 Jan, who deleted solar impact.

2015 template indicates NPOV issues in the article.
JapaneseTranslation
550 pageviews/day(単日の平均閲覧回数)
Some(少し) Edits needed - some paragraphs and sentences focus on possible non-human factors, most IPCC references are to early reports

(編集が必要 - 段落や文章によって人的でない要素に焦点を当てている、IPCC出典の版が古い。)

Yes(数値の更新=済み) Suggested edits on talk, advertised on Geography Wikiproject

(告知先:記事「地球温暖化」トークページ、日本語版ウィキペディアの地理プロジェクト

2018 template about general issues and reliable sourcing(テンプレートは2018版、一般の問題点、信頼できる出典)
Belarussian (Translation)
5 Pageviews/day
Yes Some Yes Left message on talk, asked reverter 13 Dec. Minor concessions.
Belarussian, classical (Translation)
2 pageviews/day
Yes Some Yes Local editor sometimes reverts.
Greek (Translation)
55 Pageviews/day
Minor Some Yes Posted on talk, local editor did some. Chidgk1 removals led to reverts by at least 1 user. Lively discussion on local Agora Not enough sources template since at least 2020
Romanian (Translation)
290 Pageviews/day
Some Some Turbojet is an active writer of the article - hoping they might review - see discussion in English on talk page. TJ has agreed to review suggested edits :).
Hebrew (Translation)

198 pageviews/day

Fringe as minority Some Yes Put a long review on the talk page. :he:שיחת משתמש:The Turtle Ninja has started helping
Thai (Translation)

283 pageviews/day

From outdatedness Made a start Posted on talk 31-12. Asked local admin, who's trying to find an editor in the local Discord 19-Jan.
Mongolian (Translation)
38 pageviews/day ->
Minor Made tiny start Asked local admin: may have mistranslated AR4, or Google Translate mistranslated it for us. Downplays those old conclusions ("it is possible that this is due to an increase in the concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere").

A For smaller and medium Wikipedias, asking an English-speaking admin is the way to go, as there is a good chance talk isn't watched

Fully resolved

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If you think it's highly unlikely edits will be reverted and the subtle climate denial has been also removed, you can move a language here (in alphabetic order of English name please)

  1. Arabic (Translation), 1000 pageviews/day – minor denial removed by local community & figures updated + translated.
  2. Bashkir (Translation) Use Bing translator to better read article.
  3. Basque (Translation)
  4. Bosnian (Translation), 5 Pageviews/day - First edit got reverted, then Srđan did a (partial so far) translation of enwiki
  5. Bulgarian (Translation) - 100 Pageviews/day
  6. Cantonese (Translation) - 8 Pageviews/day, local editor cleaned up after us
  7. Catalan (Translation) - Local editor did large rewrite after talk page message 12 Dec
  8. Esperanto (Translation)
  9. Estonian (Translation), 30 page views/day
  10. Galician (Translation)
  11. Gujarati (Translation), 64 pageviews/day
  12. Hungarian (Translation) 130 Pageviews/day
  13. Indonesian (Translation), 201 pageviews/day
  14. Italian (Translation) - 650 pageviews/day, After review on talk, local community solved most issues, we did a few direct edits. One person reverted without giving explanations.
  15. Javanese (Translation) - 4 pageviews/day
  16. Kannada (Translation), 81 pageviews/day, removed outdated uncertainty, asked for update on talk
  17. Kazakh (Translation), 73 Pageviews/day - also removed ozone hole confusion and updated temparature rise
  18. Kyrgyz (Translation), 7 pageviews/day - GHG added as cause and other hypotheses removed
  19. Latvian (Translation) 51 pageviews/day - admin removed denial, but other admin did not fully agree.
  20. Malay (Translation) -132 pageviews/day, removed "criticism" section with denial, various misconceptions. Unfortunately, no local editor found for maintenance
  21. Malayalam (Translation) -85 pageviews/day, bias from outdatedness, new translation English lede
  22. Occitan (Translation), 2 pageviews/day, local removed denial/outdated research after discussion in french
  23. Old English - water vapour as driver gone
  24. Russian - 950 pv/day removed myt of very warm mid-holocene
  25. Russia Buriat (Translation)
  26. Serbian (Translation) 49 pv/day - fixed by local
  27. Serbo-Croatian (Translation), 38 Pageviews/day
  28. Sinhala (Translate), 8 pageviews/day
  29. Slovak (Translation), 67 Pageviews/day, January20 22, fully rewritten - translated from Czech and English
  30. Swahili (Translation), 6 pageviews/day – local community solved most issues, new graph now added.
  31. Tagalog (Translation) - 75 pageviews/day. Misinformation by outdatedness. Local editors started completely afresh.
  32. Tamil (Translation), 57 pageviews/day
  33. Tatar (Translation)
  34. Tajik (Translation) 2 pageviews/day
  35. Urdu (Translation) - 9 pageviews/day, recent quotes from deniers deleted, mostly by User:Ulubatli Hasan
  36. Western Punjabi (Translation), 0 pageviews/day
  37. Wu-Chinese
  38. Yiddish (Translation) - collaboration local admin
  39. Korean (Translation) - 1400 Pageviews/day - translation enwiki by L Lycaon November 2022
  40. Hindi (Translation) 210 Pageviews/day - again mostly by asked Ulubatli Hasan 16 Dec in 2021, denial was in causes section.

Languages checked to be okay

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  1. Albanian
  2. Albenian (really poor quality for 200 pv/day)
  3. Allemanic German
  4. Amharic - recent translation of simplewiki
  5. Aragonese
  6. Armenian
  7. Assamese
  8. Asturian
  9. Azeri (2021 translation enwiki)
  10. Bangla
  11. Bavarian
  12. Bengali (bit outdated, 184 pageviews/day)
  13. Bhojpuri
  14. Burmese
  15. Cebuano
  16. Chuvash
  17. Classical Chinese
  18. Czech
  19. Danish
  20. Dutch
  21. Egyptian Arabic
  22. English
  23. Faroese
  24. Fiji Hindi - tell Bing translate it is Hindi
  25. Finnish
  26. French
  27. Frisian
  28. Friulian
  29. Georgian
  30. German
  31. Guyane Creole (Translation)
  32. Haitian Creole
  33. Hausa
  34. Icelandic
  35. Ido
  36. Interlingua (last of the 'global languages')
  37. Irish
  38. Jamaican Creole English
  39. Kurdish
  40. Ladin
  41. Lao
  42. Latin
  43. Lithuanian (very minor)
  44. Limburgs
  45. Linga Franca Nova
  46. Lombard
  47. Luganda - but low quality
  48. Luxemburgish
  49. Macedonian
  50. Malagasy
  51. Marathi - not great quality for 415 pageviews/day (asked on talk page)
  52. Nepali (a bit activist)
  53. Newar
  54. Norwegian
  55. Norwegian Nynorsk
  56. Odia
  57. Oroomo
  58. Pashto - 2021 translation enwiki
  59. Polish
  60. Portuguese (figure updated after request, semiprotected)
  61. Punjabi
  62. Romansh (very minor) 1 pv/day
  63. Samogitian fine - same as first sentence Lithuanian
  64. Saterland Frisian
  65. Scottish Gaelic
  66. Silician
  67. Simple English
  68. Sindhi
  69. Slovenian
  70. Sorani Kurdish (very small so checked with Bing translator)
  71. Spanish
  72. Styrian
  73. Sunda (not 100% sure, but <1 pageview a day)
  74. Swedish (translation)
  75. Telugu (mostly based on a 2020 revision of the English article, should be fine but probably outdated. Talk page discussion about the name decided to keep "global warming" as it is more well known among Telugu readers.)
  76. Turkish
  77. Turkmen
  78. Veps
  79. Vietnamese (2021 translation enwiki)
  80. Võro language checked OK by local
  81. Waloon - read like French and use lots of imagination
  82. Waray
  83. Welsh
  84. Zazaki

Hard to tell with machine translation

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  1. Guarani
  2. Lesghian - probably alright
  3. Yakut - Yakut language is Turkic - chidgk1 might figure it eventually
  4. Breton - no red flags
  5. Kabyle - no red flags
  6. Kabardian - seems okay
  7. Sakha
  8. Min nan Chinese
  9. Ilokano - likely denial, but 1 pageview per day
  10. Kapampangan - likely outdated type denial - left message on talk

Bing translator may be worth trying on these but you have to cut and paste a paragraph at a time so it is tedious.

Figures

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At least two old figures may support climate myths and would need to be replaced.

1. The image supporting the myth of global medieval period.

Replace by [[File:Temperature_reconstruction_last_two_millennia.svg|thumb]] (translatable)

 

2. And figures that show global warming up to ~2010 (very mildly supporting myth of hiatus)

Replace by [[File:Global Temperature Anomaly.svg|thumb]]

 

3. And while you're at it, why not add an updated map (may support the myth that global warming isn't really global)

Replace by [[File:Change in Average Temperature.svg|thumb]]

Tips and recommendations

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There is a choice on how to approach each language version. Should you (first) find somebody to help or remove it yourself? Some considerations:

  1. If you ask somebody else, they may continue watching the article
  2. If climate denial has been added recently (say 5-10 years), it may be wise to ask the local community, as there may still be people with these views
  3. Climate denial can be damaging, so waiting for local collaboration also has its downsides
  4. Messages on talk pages will likely go unanswered, so consider contacting a local admin or an SDG person.
    1. Find a local admin (sorted by recent activity)
    2. Wikimedians_for_Sustainable_Development#Participants lists 139 people interested in sustainability. Many different languages are represented.
    3. Lists of WikiProjects Meteorology WikiProjects Environment, WikiProjects Geography
    4. native speakers willing to translate

You can link to this page from other projects with [[:meta:Climate change portal/climate denial review]] or [[:meta:Climate change portal/climate denial review|a cross-wiki review on climate change]]

If you install User:Krinkle/Tools/Global_SUL, you'll become autoconfirmed after a few days on language versions that do not require a certain set of edits.