Climate change is now a fact, and the consensus of scientific research is that rising global temperatures are a direct result of human intervention in the environment, accelerated by the reckless use of fossil fuels. But many seem reluctant to accept this fact, attributing the change to the Earth’s “natural cycle” or even completely denying that change has occurred.
But a new review of 88,125 peer-reviewed environmental studies shows that consensus is even higher than the 97 percent consensus found in 2013. Now, 99.9 percent of published peer-reviewed studies agree that humans are causing climate change.
Researchers believe this should be enough evidence for many politicians and communities who still (surprisingly) deny climate change. The research has been published in Environmental Research Letters.
“We are now almost certain that the consensus is over 99 percent and there is no room left for any meaningful discussion about the reality of human-caused climate change,” Mark Lynas, Cornell University visiting scholar and lead author of the paper, said in a statement to the Alliance for Science.
Unfortunately, many still need convincing. About 72 percent of people in the United States believe that global warming is happening, and only 57 percent believe it is “mainly caused by human activities,” Yale Climate Communication said. Even more worryingly, 25 percent of Americans believe there is “too much disagreement” among scientists about whether global warming is occurring, suggesting a clear divide between scientists’ findings and the public’s perception of them.
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