The great climate change debate
The debate over climate change is continuing to rage into 2015. On one side of the fence, scientists with evidence showing global warming is a man-made reality, and on the other, scientists purporting the evidence isn’t convincing. Both sides have small armies of public opinion behind them.
A common statistic that gets thrown around these days is that “97 percent of scientists believe climate change is caused by humans.” Obama himself tweeted it. This statistic came under fire by those who deny climate change as human-caused because of its shaky origins. The actual statistic was that 97.2 percent of published research papers on the subject of climate change revealed a consensus that global warming is human-caused.
The result is essentially still the same. The latest surveys show 70 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of independents, and 89 percent of Democrats believe global warming is happening and at least partially caused by us.
All that aside, if global warming isn’t actually human-caused or as dangerous as the reports show, what’s the harm in turning toward renewable energy (aside from money lost by oil companies and their investors)? Fossil fuels will run out someday, so having a back-up plan seems like a good idea to me. Not only that, there’s plenty of money to be made in new green technologies and more investment opportunities are showing up all the time.
Times are changing, and fighting the current will get you nowhere.
Read the article that spurred this commentary here: Google Goes Off the Climate Change Deep End
Read an article about the history of “97 percent” here: How to Determine the Scientific Consensus on Global Warming
