Chemist Debunks Turek's Climate Myths and Becomes an Instagram Star

In under a year, Czech chemist Daniel Kortus has turned the debunking of politicians' climate myths into a viral social media project — his Instagram account Klimatomluva has amassed nearly 160,000 followers since October. The scientist shared his story on the podcast "Mediální cirkus," recorded on the Summer Podcast Stage in Prague's Troja.

According to Kortus, the idea came about by chance: he didn't originally follow politics, but after hearing statements on climate made by Filip Turek, a politician from the Motoristé party, he decided to fact-check them. "It seemed unbelievable to me that such nonsense was being said in interviews and nobody was pushing back — not even anyone from the scientific community," explains the chemist, who has since become one of the so-called green influencers.

Main target: the Motoristé party

The central figures in Kortus's videos are Filip Turek, Petr Macinka, and other members of Motoristé, who recently took over the Czech Ministry of the Environment. The scientist edits together clips of their interviews and compares them against facts — or against their own contradictory statements.

One myth he exposed was Petr Macinka's claim about a group of 1,800 respected scientists called Clintel, supposedly skeptical of human influence on climate change and allegedly facing pressure from major media outlets. As Kortus discovered, Clintel has been headed since last year by former Czech president Václav Klaus, and the organization itself is not a gathering of renowned climatologists but rather a list of people who signed a petition — among whom only one was a climatologist, and even he turned out to be a retired former chief designer of shoe-making machinery and an amateur climate enthusiast.

A doctored graph and a scientist's apology

Another exposed case involved a lecture by biologist and paleoecologist Petr Pokorný from Prague's Center for Theoretical Study. In a YouTube video, he claimed that current warming is nothing extraordinary in the planet's history, citing a graph of historical temperatures. However, the graph omitted roughly the last 30 years — the period showing a sharp temperature spike.

After Kortus pointed out the manipulated data, Pokorný reached out to him and announced he would no longer comment publicly on climate issues.

A "horn of plenty" named Turek

Kortus, a graduate of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, where he currently works as a researcher, and co-founder of the educational platform Edufix, admits that his main source of material has been none other than Filip Turek. "He's a bottomless well of possibilities, a real horn of plenty," the scientist jokes, adding that he's convinced politicians often spread climate falsehoods deliberately rather than out of ignorance.

Kortus believes that Czechia, with its strong coal industry, is particularly vulnerable to this kind of disinformation, and that US President Donald Trump has set a high bar in this regard — following cuts to climate and meteorological research funding in America, the Czech Motoristé party has likewise started slashing budgets, including that of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.

Kortus has yet to directly monetize his project. After Turek publicly accused him of taking money from "green" NGOs, the scientist jokingly posted his bank account number online — and, to his own surprise, received donations from followers amounting to roughly a full academic salary.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz