A team of researchers has published their findings into the scientific evolution of the consensus around climate change over the last decade.
The research was published in the Environmental Research Letters.
The team from Louisiana State University was led by Krista Myers and Peter Doran and looked into how the scientific community now views climate change. Wording in 1990s reports would be hedged with phrases like “on the balance of probability” or “the balance of evidence suggests…”
Today, scientists are much more unequivocal in their assertion about the impact of humans on climate change.
The team surveyed 10,929 Earth Scientists, of which 2,780 agreed. Additionally, 2,548 or 91.1% agreed that the planet was getting warmer mainly due to human activity. This is a substantive increase on the 80% who thought the same in 2009.
According to Doran:
“The findings show that consensus has increased across the board. The findings also reaffirm that consensus increases with the level of expertise – the more you know about climate science, the more likely you are to understand that humans are responsible for climate change. Near 100% of scientists in our most expert group who identify as climatologists and actively publish in the peer-reviewed literature are in complete agreement that climate change is real and caused by humans,”
