This is a re-post from Climate Crocks
Scientific conclusions derive from an understanding of basic laws supported by laboratory experiments, observations of nature, and mathematical and computer modeling. Like all human beings, scientists make mistakes, but the scientific process is designed to find and correct them. This process is inherently adversarial””scientists build reputations and gain recognition not only for supporting conventional wisdom, but even more so for demonstrating that the scientific consensus is wrong and that there is a better explanation. That’s what Galileo, Pasteur, Darwin, and Einstein did. But when some conclusions have been thoroughly and deeply tested, questioned, and examined, they gain the status of “well-established theories” and are often spoken of as “facts.
“There’s no such thing as settled science” and “science does not work by consensus”, are things we commonly hear from people who really should know better.
The earth revolves around the sun. Apples fall down. Oceans expand when warmed.
These are in fact, examples of “settled science” – accepted by consensus. We don’t re-litigate them in every paper about gravity or astrophysics.
If you google “climate, 97 percent consensus” or some permutation thereof, you’ll be treated to page after page of climate denial nonsense, some elaborately produced, some not, seeking to knock down the idea, essentially, that scientists believe in science.
Climate deniers understand that the scientific consensus is a critical gateway belief, one that most Americans are still unaware of, that makes citizens much more likely to understand the gravity of climate change, and support efforts to curb it.
So a lot of effort goes into attacking this idea.
While the “97 percent of climate scientists agree planet is warming and humans are the cause” meme has gotten pretty good penetration in the main stream media – most talking heads are aware enough to include that in any discussion of climate – in the social media sphere, the National Academy of Science does not have as strong a presence as jackasswithablog dot com.
In spending a lot of time interviewing John Cook, the author of the study so hated by climate deniers, ( and now replicated by a number of teams) – I had a goal to create at least one halfway decent, credible, well produced video tool for science warriors in the unending Facebook, email, and discussion group wars that shape a good portion of our public dialogue.
So here it is – deploy, deploy, deploy.
Hearing Dr. Cook himself explain, briefly, how the figure was arrived at, is worthwhile, as is hearing from several other researchers who have come to similar to results.
Most telling in the stats, — the more expertise respondents had in areas relevant to climate – the more likely they were to strongly support the consensus.
Posted by greenman3610 on Tuesday, 20 June, 2017
 |
The Skeptical Science website by Skeptical Science is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. |