Yes, and I know it’s false. But then I looked it up and yep, false.
The claim that the 97% climate consensus has been “debunked” is false. Multiple independent studies spanning two decades—including landmark research in 2004, 2013, and recent analyses in 2021—have repeatedly confirmed that over 97% to 99% of actively publishing climate experts agree humans are causing global warming. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The misconception stems from a specific critique of a 2013 study published by Skeptical Science (the Cook et al. study). This study analyzed thousands of climate science abstracts. Critics frequently point out that about 66% of the reviewed papers did not explicitly state an opinion on the cause of climate change in their short summary. They claim these “neutral” papers should not be counted. [1, 2, 3, 4]
However, looking at the numbers reveals why the 97% figure holds up:
The total picture: In science, many papers take the causes of global warming as an established fact, so they focus on impacts or solutions without re-explaining why the planet is warming. [1, 2, 3]
The specific finding: When the Cook study looked only at the 34% of papers that did express an opinion on what was causing the climate to change, 97.1% of those papers agreed that humans are the primary cause. [1, 2]
This high level of agreement is a hallmark of strong scientific understanding. To put this into perspective, the consensus on human-caused climate change is as strong as the scientific consensus that smoking causes lung cancer or that gravity exists. [1, 2, 3]
Furthermore, you can review the specific breakdown of the findings or learn more about the methodology used by the experts by reading the comprehensive Skeptical Science overview. For a broader look at the science, check out the Wikipedia summary, which details how newer 2021 studies have found the consensus even exceeding 99% among experts. [1, 2]
Thanks for sharing. Something ain’t right here. Yes there are fires. But the smells of rubber and chemicals and these sun pictures. This is not normal at all.
"Many people simply don’t grasp the sheer magnitude of the boreal forest or what it would take to manage fires across its enormous area, Jed Kaplan, a professor in the Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary, told me: “You can’t control these fires. You cannot put personnel, fire engines, over an area that is the size of the entire American South, or something like that. It’s just way too big of an area.”
The fact that polar bears and now apparently tigers can swim long distances is not nearly emphasized enough among the list of things that people should be rightfully scared of. I’m not saying that we are in their range I’m just saying that 500 to 1,500 lb super optimized murder beasts are happy to travel long distances just to chew your face off.
As a Mod and human being I appreciate the level.of civility in this thread on a topic that can become contentious. I would continue to appreciate that and continue to hope for any thoughtful consideration about posting something that could be construed as political as part of this topic, which so far has gone while not perfectly, better than I expected since my last foray yesterday.
I would like to Echo and amplify the recent comments about how this needs to be viewed regardless of its source or cause as a pretty wild crazy out of your situation and certainly given the scope of the fires a tragedy. We all rightfully see this in fires that happen in inhabited areas that are by orders of magnitude smaller yet still pretty dang big. This is just mongo massive, and while it isn’t directly killing people or destroying large communities there’s just a lot of trouble to be had from this from a whole bunch of angles.
I’m not certain how you would even control something like this…it is a massive area that is by and large unreachable by by conventional vehicles as far as the ability to control and I doubt there’s enough air tankers anywhere to deal with even a fraction of this. I’m not saying to completely ignore causes or future preventative steps but to zoom out and try to deal with the scope cuz it’s crazy
I’ll be sitting in my car all day tomorrow in Detroit with the recirculation button on for damn sure
