Joe Rogan, the ever-controversial podcaster and former UFC commentator, has found himself at the center of a heated climate debate after making claims on his show that the Earth is cooling, not warming. Over the past week, clips from several recent episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience have circulated widely online, drawing sharp criticism from climate experts, science communicators, and everyday listeners alike. At the heart of the controversy is Rogan’s repeated reference to a temperature graph from a Washington Post article, which itself was based on a 2024 study published in the journal Science. The graph tracks Earth’s global mean surface temperature over the last 485 million years—a daunting timeline, to be sure.
Rogan, who is not trained as a scientist, told his audience that the graph shows the planet is actually in a period of cooling, not warming. “There’s a lot of horseshit that’s involved in climate change, I’ve studied that,” Rogan told actor Mel Gibson in one episode earlier this year. “The temperature on Earth is plummeting. Look at the drop at the end, that’s where we are. That’s the reality.” According to Rogan, this drop is clear evidence that climate change is a hoax, and he has cited the graph in at least six podcast episodes to support his claim.
But climate scientists and the authors of the very study Rogan referenced say he’s gotten it all wrong. Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the Science study, told The Guardian, “It’s dumb the way he’s interpreting this graph and if he wants to talk about it he should invite me onto the show instead of talking about it to Mel Gibson or Bernie Sanders.” Tierney and her colleagues point out that while the graph does show dramatic shifts in Earth’s climate since the dawn of the Paleozoic era, the most recent section—representing the current period—features a small but staggeringly steep uptick in temperature. This uptick, not a decline, marks the rapid warming driven by human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
Climate science and policy expert Rollie Williams, speaking on his YouTube show Climate Town, didn’t mince words: “It’s almost impressive how incorrect he’s able to be about an article he’s looking directly at. It’s also an incredible example of how climate misinformation sneaks into extremely popular media and then gets absorbed into the brains of millions of Americans.”
The facts are clear, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since 1850, Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by about 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit (0.06 degrees Celsius) per decade—a rate described as unprecedented in the context of Earth’s history. To put that in perspective, the current warming is happening roughly 30 times faster than the increase in temperature that preceded the largest mass extinction event 250 million years ago, known as “the great dying,” which was itself triggered by extreme global warming. Tierney emphasized, “It’s all about the speed and we’ve never seen carbon dioxide and temperature rise as fast as now—even in big extinction events it was slower than this. We evolved in a cooler climate and now we are rapidly warming it up and putting life on this planet in danger. It’s scary.”
Rogan’s interpretation of the graph and the subsequent misinformation have not gone unnoticed by the online community. TikToker Evan James (@evanjmez) was among the first to publicly call out Rogan for cherry-picking information and misleading his massive audience. In a widely shared video, James explained, “At the tail end of the graph you will see a major spike in global temperatures during recent human history. The article literally says human-caused emissions in recent centuries have pushed the rate of warming into unprecedented territory.” James went on to note that while Earth has experienced natural glacial and interglacial cycles throughout its history, those shifts unfolded over tens of thousands of years. By contrast, the dramatic warming observed since the Industrial Revolution has happened in less than two centuries—a key distinction that Rogan failed to address.
“Joe Rogan does not read articles; he only reads headlines. And, this is a perfect example of him spreading misinformation. You just take a few minutes to read this article, you would know that the researchers' findings actually support the existence of man-made climate change,” James said. The clip sparked a lively debate online, with many commenters highlighting how human activity has fundamentally altered the planet’s climate. One pointed out, “Y’all humans have extracted over 135 BILLION TONS of petroleum (carbon) from the earth and COMBUSTED most of it. (creates carbon dioxide) releasing it into our atmosphere. how can u think that that would not do anything to the earth!!!!!!???”
The science behind these concerns is well established. When fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide—a greenhouse gas that traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere, accelerating warming far beyond natural rates. While natural cycles such as volcanic eruptions or forest fires do contribute to atmospheric carbon, only humans have been able to extract and burn enormous quantities of fossilized plant matter in such a short period. As some critics pointed out, even the extraction and use of battery materials—often cited as problematic—are fundamentally different: batteries can be reused and recycled, reclaiming up to 95% of their materials, whereas fossil fuels are burned and their byproducts released irreversibly into the atmosphere.
Rogan’s critics also noted a contradiction in his approach. Despite claiming that climate change is a “very complicated topic,” Rogan has repeatedly interpreted scientific data without any formal training or consultation with experts. As one commenter observed, “He says I think it’s a very complicated topic, then proceeds to interpret something he knows absolutely nothing about.” This tendency to oversimplify or misrepresent complex scientific findings has become a hallmark of Rogan’s podcast, which reaches millions of listeners each week and has a significant influence on public opinion.
Of course, Rogan’s defenders argue that he is simply raising questions and challenging mainstream narratives. Yet, as experts like Tierney and Williams have made clear, the danger lies in misrepresenting scientific evidence to support a preconceived view—especially when the stakes are as high as the future of the planet. The rapid pace of current warming, the unprecedented levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the mounting evidence of human-driven climate change are not matters of opinion, but of overwhelming scientific consensus.
As the debate continues to rage online and in the media, one thing remains clear: the conversation about climate change is far from over, and the need for accurate, nuanced reporting has never been more critical. Whether or not Joe Rogan accepts the invitation to have a real climate scientist on his show, the facts remain—and they are getting harder to ignore with each passing year.
