FALSE: Earth is not colder now than at any time in the last 485m years
A claim that Earth is colder now than at any time in the last 485 million years is FALSE.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that the Earth is "cooler now than at any point in the last 485 million years".
However, data from March 2026 in the table below shows that 2026 was the second-warmest on record. The last years also ranked consistently high in the historical record.
Berkley Earth's latest data for February 2026 shows a similar pattern. Many parts of the world, including areas in Central, East and North Africa as well as Madagascar, experienced one of their hottest Februaries since 1850.
The European Union's Copernicus programme March 2026 data shows that ocean temperatures were the second-warmest on record. Overall temperatures for March were 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels with Arctic sea ice at a record low.
Temperatures now are also much higher than at any time in the last 1,000 years, as shown by the "Hockey Stick" temperature graph first published by Michael Mann and his colleagues.
The latest version shows the spike which corresponds with human greenhouse gas emissions. There is a high correlation between different temperature reconstructions.
Different research teams used an array of techniques to reconstruct ancient temperatures such as historical records, tree ring analysis (dendrochronology), ice core analysis, ocean and lake sediments, glacier length, boreholes and corals.
Given the above, it is false to state that the current temperature is colder than at "any time in the last 485m years".
It is true that the Earth has been hotter in the distant past than it is today. But these temperatures were driven by natural cycles. The dramatic increase in temperature observed lately is occurring while radiation from the sun is decreasing.
As can be seen below, studies have shown that while the Earth was naturally hotter in the far distant past, the rate of change was nowhere near as fast as it is today due to human activity.
(Credit: top: Westerhold et al., 2020; bottom: Held et al., 2024)
Humans are driving the increase in both temperature and carbon dioxide at an unprecedented rate.
It is false to claim that the Earth is colder now than at any time in the last 500 million years, because temperature records are being broken and data shows it is hotter now than various times in the past.
PesaCheck has examined a claim that the Earth is colder now than any time in the last 485 million years and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here's more information on PesaCheck's methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck climate change fact-checker Christiaan van der Merwe and edited by PesaCheck chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent's largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.