Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Petrostates | Nations whose economies depend on fossil fuels have long invested in campaigns to undermine climate science, obstruct international agreements, and frame environmental action as a threat to national sovereignty. Their influence extends into global energy markets, diplomacy, and media ecosystems, ensuring that scientific warnings about planetary risk are met with political inertia. Science General |
| Phenology | The timing of natural events, such as flower blooms and animal migration, which is influenced by changes in climate. Phenology is the study of such important seasonal events. Phenological events are influenced by a combination of climate factors, including light, temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Climate Change Denial |
| Photosynthesis | The process by which plants take CO2 from the air (or bicarbonate in water) to build carbohydrates, releasing O2 in the process. There are several pathways of photosynthesis with different responses to atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Climate Change Denial |
| Phrenology | Phrenology is a 19th-century pseudoscience, developed by Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, that claimed personality traits and intellectual abilities could be determined by measuring bumps and indentations on the skull. Alternative Medicine |
| Placebo | A fake treatment that should have no effect outside the power of suggestion. Example: In drug trials, test patients may be given a pill containing the drug or a placebo, which resembles the drug (pill, injection, liquid) but doesn't contain the active ingredient. Science General |
| Placebo-Controlled Trial | A trial in which one group receives the intervention and another receives an inactive substance, so that true effects can be distinguished from expectation and chance. Vaccines |
| Plagiarism | Appropriating another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving proper credit. Public Trust |
| Plutocrats | Wealthy individuals and corporate magnates - wield outsized influence over public discourse. Their funding networks shape think tanks, political campaigns, and media outlets that cast doubt on scientific consensus, particularly around climate change and public health. Science General |
| Population | The entire group the researcher is studying. If the researcher cannot gather data from the population, studying large random samples taken from the population can be used to estimate how the population would respond. Science General |
| Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc | Latin for 'after this, therefore because of this'. The fallacy that because one event followed another, the first caused the second, as in claims that a vaccine caused a later illness. Antiscience |