Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

May 2015 – “Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that the climate is changing.” This and similar statements are made repeatedly by members of the Obama administration and others. Is it true?

While the statement is usually interpreted to mean “global warming is real,” the claim is two-fold: 
1) A global warming trend exists.

2) Human beings are the main cause.

The first of the two claims is correct, but barely, according to Dr. Terry Hughes, who worked for 35 years at the Department of Earth Sciences and the Climate Change Institute at University of Maine. He says the warming increase has been less than one degree (0.8) over the past 160 years. (See chart below.)

In addition, Hughes believes global warming is good for the environment because of increased carbon dioxide. “Researchers want to keep federal funding for climate change alive, and politicians want to earn environmentalist votes, and both predict global pandemonium to that end,” he said.

John Cook, who runs the popular website SkepticalScience.com, produced one of the key papers used to defend the popular statement. But a review of his findings reveals that Cook is actually able to demonstrate that only a handful of scientists verifiably endorse the view that Earth is warming up and human emissions of greenhouse gasses are the main cause. Rather, Cook created categories that deliberately misrepresent the findings.

forbes.com, 1/6/15; thecollegefix.com, 1/8/15