Among many of the policy debates riddled with misinformation, the discussion of climate change remains unchallenged in its lack of justifiable evidence and credibility. In order to sweep at least a few myths away from the conversation, here are the top 5 myths you can eliminate from your talking points.

1. “Over 97% of the scientific community is in complete agreement that we are contributing to climate change.” – Leonardo DiCaprio

To criticize any claim about Climate Change without talking about the Holy Leonardo DiCaprio would be a sin, as DiCaprio has made it his vendetta to stand in defense of climate change, starting with the 97% myth. If you look at the literature, the specific meaning of the 97% claim is: 97 percent of climate scientists agree that there is a global warming trend and that human beings are the main cause–that is, that we are over 50% responsible. The warming is a whole 0.8 degrees over the past 150 years, faring out to almost no warming the last decade and a half. Testifying before the Senate, University of Alabama Climate Research Scientist and former NASA Senior Scientist for Climate Studies explained that even the skeptics of the level of human involvement in climate change were included into the frequently cited 97%. He explains, “Well, what do all these people agree to? Well, they agree to something fairly innocuous and it’s something that most of us agree to that humans must have some influence on climate. The Question is how much.” In fact, the 97% claim ignores 66.4% of the papers it surveyed took no position on man-made climate change. As a matter of fact, only 32.6% endorsed man-made climate change, and to varying degrees.

2. “…our planet is heating and cooking up and warming.” – President of the Sierra Club Aaron Mair

In a 2015 testimony to a Senate committee, President of the Sierra Club Aaron Mair battled Senator Ted Cruz over the data Satallites presented that directly contradicted Mair’s claim that the planet is, “heating and cooling and warming.” This is an easy myth to bust; Since 1880, the earth has heated just over 1 degree Fahrenheit. When confronted with the facts and satellite data, Mair repeatedly referenced our first myth, as if he were pleading the 5th amendment.

3.”The substantial warming that has already occurred explains why much of the world’s land ice is starting to melt and the oceans are rising at an accelerating pace.”-New York Times, “Short Answers to Hard Questions About Climate Change”

A 2015 NASA report explains,”…an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers. The research challenges the conclusions of other studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report, which says that Antarctica is overall losing land ice. According to the new analysis of satellite data, the Antarctic ice sheet showed a net gain of 112 billion tons of ice a year from 1992 to 2001. That net gain slowed to 82 billion tons of ice per year between 2003 and 2008.” That means if the net gain continued to slow at its current rate… it would still take at least three decades before we got to a point of beginning to see net losses.

4. “Climate change is man-made”-sub-claim of the 97% Myth

According to the article, “A simple rule to determine which insolation cycles lead to interglacials”, published by Nature.com, an international science journal, “…before one million years ago interglacials occurred when the energy related to summer insolation exceeded a simple threshold, about every 41,000 years. Over the past one million years, fewer of these insolation peaks resulted in deglaciation (that is, more insolation peaks were ‘skipped’), implying that the energy threshold for deglaciation had risen, which led to longer glacials…” This means, essentially, that the climate has been changing for millions of years, and will change after we are long gone.

5. Polar bears are dying- “An Inconvenient Truth”

No, polar bears are not dying in mass, although the famous sensationalized video released by National Geographic showing a starving polar bear may tug at your heartstrings. In reality, however, polar bear populations are on a steady rise. In 2004, populations were at an extraordinary low of 935 polar bears, but now, populations are at an estimated 30,000. By the way, according to Geoff York, from Polar Bears International, and has survived three encounters with aggressive polar bears, polar bears are, ” more likely to try new things, and sometimes, that might be us.”

When Conversing with those of the opposite side of the political spectrum of party affiliation, it is important, no matter what ideology one subscribes to, to recognize fact from needless sensationalism.