According to NASA, a scientific consensus shows that around 97% of climate scientists agree that the global warming trend is “extremely likely due to human activities.” In fact, 18 leading scientific associations such as the U.S National Academy of Sciences and the U.S Global Change Research Program support this claim.
Despite countless studies supporting this consensus, several skeptics and climate change hoax organizations argue that climate change is either not occurring, not real, or not caused by humans.
Here are a few things people have to say about why climate change is not a real issue:
- Where’s the heat?
Image Source: Twitter (@real Donald Trump)
Global warming critics often point out instances of abnormally cold weather as proof that global warming is not real or not occurring. The term “global warming” can be a little misleading. Climate change caused by humans can result in extreme weather changes, both hot and cold. Not only does that mean record heat, melting ice caps, and droughts, it also includes floods, severe snowstorms, and record low temperatures. However, the Earth’s average temperature is indeed in an upward trend. NASA data shows that although average global surface temperatures fluctuate up and down every year, in the long run the Earth’s temperature has been steadily rising for the last century.
- There is no consensus among scientists that global change is real and caused by human activity.
Image Source: Townhall
A columnist for Townhall, a conservative news website, wrote an article about “5 Scientific Reasons That Global Warming Isn’t Happening”, one of them being that there is no scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activity. The article referenced an online petition signed by 31,000 American scientists who agree that humans aren’t the cause of global warming. However, only about 3,800 are trained in the atmospheric, environmental, and Earth sciences. The rest are experts in medicine, physics, biology, chemistry, and computer and mathematics. And about one third of them are engineers. The majority of these scientists do not directly specialize in the Earth sciences, but they feel confident enough in their knowledge to support the claim that global warming is not real, despite the overwhelming evidence proving otherwise.
- The ice isn’t even melting!
Source: Twitter (@AsapSCIENCE)
Critics cite studies from NASA to argue that global warming is not happening. NASA did in fact report that the Antarctic sea ice reached a new record maximum in the wintertime. However, NASA followed up with another study clearly stating that the ice gain in the Antarctic does not make up for the ice loss in the Arctic. Much more ice melts in the Arctic than is being formed in the Antarctic, contributing to rising sea levels and heat retention.
Bill Nye, the famous science guy, teamed up with AsapSCIENCE to explain what would happen if all the ice melted. Nye has been a strong advocate in the fight against climate change, spreading awareness and challenging critics. He even bet climate change skeptic Marc Morano $20,000 that 2016 would be one of the hottest years on record. He also bet that this decade would be the hottest on record as well. Morano declined the bet.
These climate change naysayers have helped keep the conversation flowing, keeping attention on this growing issue and prompting further research into it. But with an overwhelming amount of evidence proving that climate change truly is a real problem, it’s time to stop arguing and start working towards creating a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable future.
