Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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Global warming is unrelated to
human activities.
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Global change is all part of natural
Earth cycles.
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Crooked, lying scientists are behind
global change (a clear response to
Climategate).
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Crooked, lying politicians are
behind this.
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Global warming is real but . . .
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There is no global warming.
global warming as a very serious problem
dropped from 44% to 35% between April
2008 and September-October 2009. Mean-
while, a survey by Eurobarometer in 2009
indicated that Europeans view climate
change as the second-most serious prob-
lem the world faces, behind “poverty, the
lack of food and drinking water.” Among
those who do research in any aspect of cli-
mate change there is essentially no contro-
versy concerning whether global warming
is upon us or whether humans are at least
partly the cause of the problem. There is
a wide range of scientific opinion among
researchers on the details of this global
phenomenon. But let us not forget that the
scientific debate is about details, not over
whether global warming is real or whether
it is related to human activities. Industry-
backed think tanks and Astroturf organi-
zations are simply taking advantage of the
nature of scientific inquiry to manufacture
doubt in the minds of the public and dis-
suade policymakers from taking action
which might harm their interests. Scien-
tists who are global warming skeptics or
deniers have created the appearance of a
controversy where none exists.
Peter T. Doran and Maggie Kendall Zim-
merman of the University of Illinois, Chi-
cago, surveyed 3,146 earth scientists (from
a geoscience phone directory) and asked the
following primary questions: (1) When com-
pared with pre-1800s levels, do you think
that mean global temperatures have gener-
ally risen, fallen, or remained relatively con-
stant? (2) Do you think human activity is a
Frequently the comments were quite
harsh:
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The junk science you and your fellow
falsifiers have foisted on our populace
contains not a shred of credibility.
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We all know it's a huge scam worth
billions of dollars, and that you are
lying and concealing data, conspiring
to shut out anyone who doesn't
conform to your communist, one-
world-government rule and wealth
redistribution policies.
How effective is the denial echo cham-
ber? A poll by the Pew Research Center in
2009 revealed a sharp decline in the per-
centage of Americans who say there is solid
evidence that global temperatures are ris-
ing. In April 2008, 71% said there was solid
evidence of rising global temperatures. Poll-
ing in September-October 2009 showed
that just 57% of Americans felt that there
was solid evidence of higher average tem-
peratures over the past few decades. Also,
the proportion of Americans who viewed
