Experts have published a short guide to climate science to help people challenge claims about global warming made by the "ill-informed pub bore or the family know-it-all".

Climate scientists at the Royal Society have produced the guide with 20 short questions and answers addressing some of the most common assertions which they say are made by people who dismiss the scientific basis of climate change.

It include questions over how scientists know recent climate change is largely caused by human activities, the role the sun plays in warming and whether "disaster scenarios" like the Gulf Stream switching off are a cause for concern.

It also addresses issues raised by sceptics such as why Arctic sea ice is melting but Antarctic ice is not, and whether the slowdown in warming means that climate change is no longer happening.

The experts said they hoped the guide would allow people to call up the facts on their smart phone when they met someone who expressed extreme views on climate scientists, and correct them.

Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said: "Most people in the UK grasp the basics of climate science and the need to take sensible actions about global warming.

"However we all know someone who claims to know better than the vast majority of expert climate scientists around the world, the ill-informed pub bore or the family know-it-all who claims, with great confidence, either that global warming is not a problem or at the other end of the spectrum that extreme catastrophe is just around the corner.

"Our guide is designed so that the next time you meet someone who expresses extreme views on climate science, you can quickly get the facts on your phone and politely correct them."

He said the guide, which is accompanied by a 60 second animation explaining the basics of climate science, was also there for people who wanted to hear "straight from expert climate scientists, without bias or spin, the science of what is happening to our climate".