One Fact About Climate Change That’s Worth Repeating - by Joe Romm

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists — over 97 percent — understand that humans are the primary cause of climate change.  This is one of the central facts about human-caused climate change that any climate communicator needs to keep repeating, for several reasons.

First, it’s true, as Politifact detailed on Monday.  The scientific literature is clear on this.

Second, the ongoing disinformation campaign funded by the fossil fuel industry (together with false balance by the media) has left the public with the impression that there is considerable scientific debate on a subject where there isn’t.

Consensus_Gap
When people are informed about the reality of the overwhelming consensus they naturally are more inclined to want to take action, as social science research has shown.

Let’s briefly explore the various ways to express the consensus, since some are more accurate than others.  On March 24 U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) wrote on his website, “Over 97 percent of the scientific community … believe that humans are contributing to climate change.”

Politifact Virginia rated this “Mostly True” on Monday.  Politifact correctly notes that “The studies Beyer and others cite do not reflect the scientific community at large.”  So they conclude “Beyer’s statement is credible but needs elaboration.  We rate it Mostly True.”

It’s true that when you cite this statistic it is best to use “climate scientists” and not “scientists.”  You can also use “peer-reviewed climate research” or “climate experts.”

As an aside, if you or child has a serious pancreas problem, I don’t think you’re going to be terribly interested what your cardiologist thinks, let alone your dentist.  Similarly, it’s what climate scientists understand and what they can demonstrate in the peer-reviewed literature that we should care about.

Skeptical Science reviews the literature here.  As environmental scientist Dana Nuccitelli explained in 2014, “Three distinct studies using four different methods have independently shown that the expert consensus on human-caused global warming is 97 ± 1%.  The result is the same whether we ask the experts’ opinions, look at their public reports and statements, or examine their peer-reviewed science.”
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The scientific literature — and the assessment of the literature unanimously embraced by the world’s governments — make clear that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists — over 97 percent — understand that humans are the primary cause of climate change.

If you want to be more specific, you can say “… understand that humans are the primary cause of global warming since 1950.”  To keep it short but still accurate, you could say “over 97 percent of climate scientists understand that humans are causing climate change.”
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We are as certain that humans are responsible for recent climate change as we are that cigarettes are dangerous to your health.

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