No, 1,500 Scientists from 'Quantum Korea' Did Not Reject Climate Change — The Conference Has Nothing to Do With Climate
“1500 scientists from Quantum Korea agree that there is no climate change”
The argument in brief
A viral claim says 1,500 scientists from Quantum Korea agreed that climate change is not real. This is false. Quantum Korea is a quantum computing and technology conference — it has no connection to climate science and issued no such statement. Meanwhile, 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that human-caused climate change is real, a consensus backed by thousands of peer-reviewed studies.
Data: Cook et al. 2013, Environmental Research Letters; Powell 2019, Bulletin of Science
Why it spread
This claim works because it wraps a false idea in the language of authority. A number like '1,500 scientists' sounds impressive and hard to dismiss. For people who are already skeptical of climate policy — often for legitimate reasons like economic concern or distrust of institutions — a headline like this feels like validation. That emotional payoff makes people want to share it before they verify it. The unfamiliar name 'Quantum Korea' also sounds just credible enough that most people won't bother to look it up.
A claim circulating online states that 1,500 scientists from something called 'Quantum Korea' have agreed there is no climate change. This is false. There is no credible record of any such statement, and the premise of the claim falls apart the moment you look at what Quantum Korea actually is.
Quantum Korea is a conference about quantum technology — think quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing. According to its own official website, it has nothing to do with climate science. Attributing a climate denial statement to this conference is a bit like quoting a dental conference on rocket engineering. The connection simply does not exist.
The actual scientific picture is the opposite of what the claim suggests. NASA's Global Climate Change resource notes that multiple studies show 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that warming trends over the past century are extremely likely caused by human activity. A landmark 2013 study by Cook et al., published in Environmental Research Letters, analyzed nearly 12,000 climate research abstracts and found 97.1% endorsed that consensus. A 2019 analysis by Powell found the agreement closer to 100% among peer-reviewed articles.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, published in 2023 and authored by hundreds of scientists worldwide, states with unequivocal certainty that human influence has warmed the climate. No major national or international scientific body disputes this. The Quantum Korea claim does not represent a crack in that consensus — it represents a fabrication.
Claims like this follow a well-documented pattern. As Skeptical Science's fact-check database notes, petitions or lists attributed to scientists rejecting climate change often include non-climate experts, duplicate names, or invented ones. Putting a large number and a scientific-sounding name in a headline is enough to fool many readers who never check the source. If you see a claim about scientists rejecting climate change, always ask: who are they, what is their field, and where was this actually published?
Sources
- NASA Global Climate Change
Multiple studies show that 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. No credible scientific body disputes the reality of climate change.
- Cook et al. (2013), Environmental Research Letters
Analysis of 11,944 climate abstracts found 97.1% endorsed the consensus that humans are causing global warming. No major scientific consensus exists denying climate change.
- Quantum Korea Conference (Official)
Quantum Korea is a conference focused on quantum science and technology — including quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing. It is not a climate science conference and has issued no statement denying climate change.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2023), authored by hundreds of scientists worldwide, confirms with unequivocal certainty that human influence has warmed the climate and that widespread, rapid changes are occurring across the Earth system.
- Skeptical Science / Fact-Check Database
Claims of large groups of scientists rejecting climate change are a recurring misinformation pattern. Petitions or lists attributed to scientists often include non-climate experts, duplicates, or fabricated names, and none have credibly overturned the scientific consensus.