discussed in a manufactured global warming theory Joe Rogan Experience Podcasts are proliferating on TikTok despite the platform’s new policy against climate disruption, a new report exclusively shared ledge finds.
Seven TikTok videos promoting the so-called “Adam and Eve” theory — which claims that Earth’s magnetic field will shift and cause devastating effects across the planet — were uploaded between January and April, the nonprofit organization reports. Over 20 million views. Media matters to America. Video includes clips from the January 18 episode Joe Rogan ExperienceExaggerating the statements of Rogan and his guests, contrasted with mainstream science.
The popularity of the video shows how easily misinformation buried in a three-hour-long podcast episode can be pulled out and widely distributed on TikTok. It’s also a test of TikTok’s recent commitment to “ramp up enforcement” of its new climate change misinformation policy.
“There is no evidence and no science and no physics behind any of the claims”
“It’s unfortunate that these things are being put out,” Martin Milanczak, a senior research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, said in an interview. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And any claim about magnetic field changes linked to climate change has no evidence and no science and no physics behind it.
Viral videos attempt to explain the so-called “Adam and Eve” theory of the reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles. YouTuber Jimmy Corsetti, a guest on Rogan’s show, says the theory is that the planet “flips” approximately every 6,500 years. “It’s a 90-degree flip, but after six days, or the seventh day, it corrects itself,” he says. “Because of this, Earth essentially ground to a standstill – the Sun would basically stay in the same place, causing heating like we’ve never experienced,” Corsetti says in a clip.
There is no evidence that the planet has or will ever do that kind of 90-degree flip — where the Arctic would be where the Antarctic is and vice versa — Mylinczak tells WebMD. ledge, “It’s completely bogus. If it happened every 6,500 years, we’d certainly see it; it would be in all the records … The amount of energy to bring it up is tremendous. And you know, starting it There’s nothing to do,” he says.
Earth’s magnetic poles Are Shifting, just not in the way that’s discussed in podcasts and TikTok videos. NASA has a helpful explanation of what’s happening on their website. But in short: Earth’s magnetic field is constantly changing. Our planet’s magnetic north pole is moving, moving from Arctic Canada to the Siberian Arctic. Earth’s magnetic poles (not the planet itself) have reversed 183 times in the past 83 million years, paleomagnetic records show.
In a pole reversal, Earth’s magnetic field gradually weakens and then increases in strength in the opposite direction. According to Brendan Reilly, an assistant research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, this process happens very slowly — possibly spread over a few thousand years. “It’s quite possible that if one were happening in our lifetime, we wouldn’t even know it because the whole process would take many, many generations,” Reilly says. “It’s not just this dramatic thing.”
But there’s plenty of drama in Rogan’s podcasts and TikTok videos. tiktok video Feature Corsetti says we are “more than 200,000 years overdue” for a “catastrophic” pole shift, according to Unsupported Adam and Eve theory. On top of global warming, he says the theory is that equatorial winds traveling “about 1,000 miles an hour” will continue their momentum as the planet turns.
“Winds of 1,000 mph are way beyond supersonic. Right up there, I mean, that person has no idea what they’re talking about,” Melinczak tells WebMD. ledge, Even the strongest hurricane winds only reach 150 to 160 mph.
According to Reilly, the world is not “overdue” for a pole reversal. It would be like tossing a coin, getting two heads in a row, and saying you’re overdue for tails, even though the odds haven’t changed, he says. And even though Earth’s magnetic north pole may have begun to shift a bit faster — a point Corsetti makes in the podcast — Reilly says it’s not out of line for what’s typical of Earth’s magnetic field.
in an email ledgeCorsetti says the TikTok video took some of his statements out of context. “Note that those various TikTok clips are edited excerpts of my conversation on the Joe Rogan podcast, where I’m explaining the difference between the ‘mainstream scientific view’ of pole shifts compared to the ‘Adam and Eve story’ — Which is certainly not considered accepted science,” he writes.
The Adam and Eve theory stems from a 1965 book by Chan Thomas, written before climate science had been extensively researched. The book caused a stir in conspiracy theory circles after the CIA declassified it in 2013. (Among other things, the book claims that Jesus was abducted by aliens in a “space vehicle”.) Today’s theory is often formulated to apply that climate change. It is caused by natural forces rather than by burning fossil fuels and is not as big a risk compared to other hazards.
Corsetti also retracted some of his statements on climate change in his email ledge, In a viral video culled from the podcast, with over 352,000 likes, Corsetti says, “I think the correct data on Earth is that Earth is cold most of the time. Right now we should be thankful that it’s nice and comfortable.”
Mountains of evidence show that the planet is warming in the form of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. The World Meteorological Organization reported in January that the past eight years have been the hottest eight years on the books. The worst heat wave ever recorded in North America jammed roads and led to a spike in emergency department visits in the Pacific Northwest US in 2021, an example of recent record-breaking heatwaves around the world.
“I feel like anyone who has eyes to see should understand that we are littering and negatively altering our environment… Personally, I drive an electric vehicle,” Corsetti says.
The popularity of the TikTok video Corcetti showcases, which picks up misinformation from Rogan’s podcast and packages it with dramatic music and images, shows how easy it is to Misinformation on the platform through emotional shortform videos. It is also telling how well the platform is implementing its policies.
In April, the social media platform “committed to speeding up enforcement of a new climate change misinformation policy that removes climate change misinformation that undermines well-established scientific consensus, such as climate change material denying the existence of, or factors contributing to, it.”
And yet, the seven videos that Media Matters flagged in its report are still garnering likes and shares on TikTok. Tiktok did not immediately respond ledge When reached for comment.
Abbie Richards, one of the authors of the Media Matters report, says that Spotify lags behind other platforms by failing to establish a clear policy on climate misinformation in its content. “Spotify has long-standing policies that help us balance creator expression and listener preferences while minimizing the risk of offline harm. We have a number of measures in place to ensure that content on Spotify is in keeping with our policies,” Spotify spokeswoman Rosa Oh said in an email. ledge, She declined to comment on the Joe Rogan podcast, and Joe Rogan did not respond to a request for comment.
Rogan has been called out in the past for inviting guests, such as Randall Carlson, who reject widely accepted climate science. “What really bothered me was what Randall Carlson said, he goes, ‘Global warming isn’t scary. Global cooling, that’s what’s really scary,'” Rogan says in another misleading clip from his podcast that has gone viral. Made my way into Tiktok videos. While Rogan’s podcast already has a huge reach, the episodes are hours long, and statements like this were probably buried were it for TikTok users to edit it into more easily shareable content. was not.
“He’s reaching huge audiences with fringe ideas and conspiracy theories [on his podcast], And then they’re spreading to these other platforms,” says Allison Fischer, climate and energy program director at Media Matters.
And that has scientists like Mylinjak worried. “I’m worried because people get misled by these things, and they vote,” he says. “I have two kids, and all of our kids will have to deal with the consequences of making or not making decisions about how to deal with climate change.”
