Nature
PUBLISHED
66
Climate change is happening, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that the rising global temperature is a direct result of human interference with the environment, accelerated by reckless use of fossil fuels. However, many seem unwilling to accept this fact, blaming the change on Earth’s "natural cycle" or even denying there is change altogether.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.A new survey of a whopping 88,125 peer-reviewed studies on the environment has found the consensus is even more dramatic than the consensus of 97 percent found in 2013 – now, 99.9 percent of peer-reviewed, published studies agree that humans are causing climate change.
The researchers believe this should shut down all climate denialism, which (surprisingly) still exists in many politicians and the general public. The research was published in Environmental Research Letters.
“We are virtually certain that the consensus is well over 99 percent now and that it’s pretty much case closed for any meaningful public conversation about the reality of human-caused climate change,” said Mark Lynas, a visiting fellow at the Alliance for Science at Cornell University and the paper’s first author, in a statement.
Unfortunately, many people still need convincing. According to Yale Climate Communication, approximately 72 percent of people in the US believe that global warming is happening, with just 57 percent believing it is "mostly caused by human activities". Even more alarmingly, 25 percent of Americans believe there is "a lot of disagreement" between scientists over whether global warming is occurring at all, indicating a clear divide between scientists’ findings and the public’s perception of them.
