Science Agrees: Climate Change Is Totally Our Fault

If you think your life hasn’t made a difference on the planet, we’ve got some great news for you: the scientific community overwhelmingly disagrees with you. The bad news is that the world is ending and it’s our fault.

A recent study published in the Environmental Research Letters journal found that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is caused by humans. These findings also operate under the understanding that climate change is also, in fact, real, despite inexplicably pervasive arguments to the contrary.

A team from Michigan Technological University compiled this data by analyzing seven earlier independent studies of scientists’ findings and opinions regarding climate change. This study was not simply one study, nor was it just another addition to the sea of climate change findings; this study instead focused on finding a consensus on the causes of climate change among countless studies about other aspects of climate change.

Naomi Oreskes, professor at Harvard University and co-author of the study, said, “By compiling and analyzing all of this research…we’ve established a consistent picture with high levels of scientific agreement among climate experts,” the Independent reported.

Dr. Sarah A. Green, the Michigan Tech professor who led the study, explained that the biggest problem with some climate change surveys is that they can be biased toward some pre-existing opinions or be directed at people who aren’t experts in climate science.

Dr. Green also expressed concern with the public’s “very skewed” perception of the scientific community’s existing consensus on man-made climate change theories. A study showed that only 12% of Americans believed that there was strong agreement among scientists about climate change. This perception has become increasingly clear in political rhetoric, where the scientific need for peer reviewing, debate, experimentation, and the use of terminology like the word “theory” has led climate change deniers to argue that scientists can’t agree on if climate change is even real, let alone caused by humans. Research shows that those who believe that scientists don’t agree on climate change are also less likely to believe that we need urgent solutions.

Dr. Green’s study sought out to take a very important public step in bridging the gap between the scientific community and the public at large who may have difficulty understanding the imminent nature of this global threat. As the study says, part of the problem comes from certain groups “conflating the opinion of non-experts with experts and assuming that lack of affirmation equals dissent.”

This overwhelming agreement between scientists isn’t the only reassuring news about climate change.

At the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, a unanimous agreement between 195 countries was reached to reduce their carbon output to curb global warming. Hopefully political leaders and the general population of the U.S. will heed the advice of these scientists before it is too late.