Vast Majority of Earth Scientists Attribute Climate Change to Human Activities

Articles — By forcechange on January 20, 2009 11:38 am

While U.S. voters may doubt climate change is caused by humans, the overwhelming majority of earth scientists from around the globe disagree.  In a survey released on Tuesday by researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago, it was found that 82% of 3,146 earth scientists surveyed blame human activity for changing global temperatures. 

Of these scientists, 97% of climatologists believe humans play a role.  The biggest doubters came from the fields of petroleum geology and meteorology, with only 47% and 64% attributing climate changes to human behavior, respectively.

Associate Professor Peter Doran, who along with former graduate student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman, conducted the survey late last year, noted:

“The petroleum geologist response is not too surprising, but the meteorologists’ is very interesting.”  Doran explained that while “Most members of the public think meteorologists know climate… most of them actually study very short-term phenomenon.”  This fact is reaffirmed by this performance by CNN’s star meteorologist Chad Myers.

As for the nearly unanimous consensus among climatologists, Doran stated:

“They’re the ones who study and publish on climate science. So I guess the take-home message is, the more you know about the field of climate science, the more you’re likely to believe in global warming and humankind’s contribution to it.”