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Despite years of controversy over global warming, researchers say the last word has now been said on the issue.
That’s a whole topic of discussion: climate change. Because is man the culprit of the current rise in temperatures and all that relates to it? Or is it just a freak of nature? After all, there have been several times in the past that the Earth’s climate has changed drastically. For years, climate deniers have taken hold of the growing scientific evidence that humans really are to blame. But now, according to the researchers, we really can’t ignore it. Because over 99% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is caused by humans.
to study
The researchers rely on a similar article published in 2013. At the time, this found that 97% of studies published between 1991 and 2012 support the idea that human activities are altering the Earth’s climate. The new study analyzed 88,125 climate-related scientific studies published between 2012 and 2020. In this way, the researchers wanted to determine whether the consensus could have changed since 2013.
99 percent
But nothing is less true. Instead, the consensus grew. It seems that almost all climate studies (99 percent) now state that humans are the cause of climate change. So almost all climatologists are on this side. “I think this confirms once again – this time without a reasonable doubt – that the scientific consensus on man-made climate change is virtually universal,” said researcher Mark Lynas. Scientias.nl.
The researchers began their study with a random sample of 3,000 studies selected from a database of 88,125 English-language climate articles published between 2012 and 2020. They found that only four of those 3,000 articles were skeptical. man-made climate change. The researchers then created an algorithm that searched the remaining articles for certain keywords associated with skepticism. In the end, among the more than 88,000 articles, the team found 31 implicitly or explicitly skeptical studies, all published in smaller journals. These skeptical inquiries end up in a table the researchers included in their study. “You can judge for yourself the impact they have and whether they deserve to be taken seriously,” says Lynas.
This means that climate deniers don’t really have a foothold. “There can’t be any more statements like ‘scientists are still debating’ or something like that,” Lynas says.
Debate
According to the researcher, this is a very important idea that must be gotten rid of. Because polls and the opinions of politicians and public representatives sometimes incorrectly indicate that there is still debate among scientists about the real cause of climate change. In 2016, for example, the Pew Research Center found that only 27% of American adults believe that “almost all” scientists agree that climate change is human-induced. There are also still divisions within politics and among the general public as to whether humans can be blamed or not.
According to recent CBS figures Six in ten people think that climate change is entirely (12%) or mainly (48%). More than a quarter (27%) say that humans and nature play an equally important role in this regard. Five percent believe that nature is the main cause of climate change and one percent attribute climate change entirely to nature.
Now that it turns out that scientists really do agree with each other, the question arises as to where climate skepticism really comes from. “I think this study helps confirm that climate skepticism is primarily a cultural and political phenomenon,” Lynas said when asked. “It’s not something that is driven by scientific uncertainty. There are many reasons for this – ideological or economic – but they are certainly not scientific problems. Convincing climate deniers with rock-solid data has therefore proven to be pointless on several occasions in the past. “I don’t think climate denial has to be fought with science,” says Lynas. “These are political debates that must be treated differently. “
Solutions
According to the researchers, it is very important that we recognize that humans are really the cause of the current warming of the world. Because only in this way can we implement solutions quickly. And this is also urgent. We are currently experiencing the devastating effects of climate change – such as climate-related disasters such as floods and heat waves – at first hand. Yet despite the great scientific consensus, we seem to be doing too little about it. “Joint commitments from countries around the world are still insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement,” says Lynas. “This is something that will be discussed at the next climate summit in Glasgow.”
All in all, the researchers want to show with the help of their study that the debate is now really closed. “If the 97% of the results of the 2013 study still leave a doubt about the scientific consensus on the human influence on the climate, let us hope that the current results will eliminate any remaining uncertainty”, underlines Lynas. “So I think that should be the last word – this work doesn’t need to be repeated. Scientists are now as confident in the reality of human-induced climate change as they are in evolution and plate tectonics. The rest is political.
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