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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

This just in: 97% of scientists still believe man is causing climate change

Duh. Nothing like waking up and reading something you already knew. But it bears repeating for our resident skeptics: The latest analysis is one of the largest surveys attempted and examined 1,372 known working climate researchers. Call it a consensus. From the NYT, the report titled Study Affirms Consensus on Climate Change:

The results are pretty conclusive. The new research supports the idea that the vast majority of the world's active climate scientists accept the evidence for global warming as well as the case that human activities are the principal cause of it.

For example, of the top 50 climate researchers identified by the study (as ranked by the number of papers they had published), only 2 percent fell into the camp of climate dissenters. Of the top 200 researchers, only 2.5 percent fell into the dissenter camp. That is consistent with past work, including opinion polls, suggesting that 97 to 98 percent of working climate scientists accept the evidence for human-induced climate change.

So their basically saying 49 our 50 say yes. And speaking of skeptics, here’s the coup de grâce:

The study demonstrates that most of the scientists who have been publicly identified as climate skeptics are not actively publishing in the field. And the handful who are tend to have a slim track record, with about half as many papers published as the scientists who accept the mainstream view.

Also, read here how to talk to a climate skeptic via Grist. It’s a great toolkit - and climate preparation is key early in the morning. We expect an argumentative day.



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.