Sunday, February 01, 2009

Sounds Like A Consensus To Me

If you listen to the denier crowd, you'd swear that the tenets of global warming are crumbling around us. More and more scientists are coming forward to question the supposed consensus, "global cooling" the new buzzword. Just go outside, need we say more? Complete ignorance of misfits and low rent journalists aside (yes, you hate Al Gore, we get it, but it's not really about HIM brainiac), interesting to see a new study, which shows in clear terms, the only thing crumbling is the deniers brittle brain tissue. The study found overwhelming support for global warming and man-made global warming, with the added emphasis, the closer to the field, the more expertise, the more inclined to agree:
A group of 3,146 Earth scientists surveyed around the world overwhelmingly agree that in the past 200-plus years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures.

Questions used were reviewed by a polling expert who checked for bias in phrasing, such as suggesting an answer by the way a question was worded.

Two questions were key: "Have mean global temperatures risen compared to pre-1800s levels?" and "Has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures?"

About 90 percent of the scientists agreed with the first question and 82 percent the second.

The numbers are even more convincing, when you include the subset of scientists who actually work in the field. Imagine that:
In analyzing responses by sub-groups, Doran found that climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role. Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 and 64 percent respectively believing in human involvement.

"The petroleum geologist response is not too surprising, but the meteorologists' is very interesting," he said. "Most members of the public think meteorologists know climate, but most of them actually study very short-term phenomenon."

He was not surprised, however, by the near-unanimous agreement by climatologists.

"They're the ones who study and publish on climate science. So I guess the take-home message is, the more you know about the field of climate science, the more you're likely to believe in global warming and humankind's contribution to it."

97% of those in the know, sounds like a consensus to me.

Anyways, I have some MORE shovelling to do, so take that you commie academic experts, peddling your knowledge laden hoax, based on objective evidence.

3 comments:

Frankly Canadian said...

Good work Steve, hopefully the media can give this topic the much needed attention required to speed up the change in attitudes.

Anonymous said...

What's funny is that many of the same people who deny the fact that global climate change is anthropocentric in origin, also seem to believe that the world is only 6,000 years old.

JimmE said...

Gee, where's the CONSENSUS AIN'T SCIENCE comments? I would have thought the Tobacco Lobby er, I mean the Fossil lobby would have targeted your site by now!