As the global climate continues to change, the debate about global warming and its causes has become increasingly heated. The scientific community has been at the heart of this debate, studying the evidence and coming to conclusions about the topic that have implications for public policy. One important question, then, is whether the preponderance of scientific evidence supports the idea that global warming is real and its effects will have serious consequences. A review of the scientific evidence on global warming yields the conclusion that the vast majority of scientists believe in the reality of global warming.
The evidence for this belief is overwhelming. A survey of earth scientists conducted in 2019 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) found that over 90% of those surveyed accepted that global warming was occurring and was likely caused by human activities. This rate of acceptance amongst members of the scientific community is reflecting a consistent consensus within the scientific community that global warming is real and serious.
This levels of acceptance are backed up by the conclusions of many major scientific reports released in recent years. In 2013, an evaluation of over 12,000 peer-reviewed climate research studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the majority of studies had found evidence for global warming and understanding of how human activities were contributing to it had increased. Similarly, the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) 2017 report on climate change and its effects on national security concluded that, with high confidence, global temperatures were rising and scientific evidence demonstrated that human activities were contributing heavily to this increase.
The preponderance of evidence is a sufficient indicator that the scientific community has overwhelmingly accepted global warming and the role that human activities have in its presence. This, in turn, has implications for public policy. Numerous federal, state, and local governments have taken steps to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions and combat the effects of global warming. Indeed, the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement, which calls on all nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, was signed by a majority of the world’s countries, signalling an acceptance of global warming and the threat it poses.
The future is uncertain for the planet with climate change becoming an ever-growing concern. However, the scientific community’s near unanimous acceptance of global warming and the value of taking steps to reduce it is a positive sign. It shows that governments, organisations, and individuals are increasingly aware of the need to take action to reduce the human contribution to global warming. As the evidence on global warming accumulates, pressure will grow on individuals and businesses to take measures to combat the effects of global warming and lessen the human contribution to it.
