Scientific consensus

From ClimateSkeptics

Analysis of consensus in scientific articles

2004 essay by Naomi Oreskes in the journal Science reported a survey of abstracts of peer-reviewed papers related to global climate change in the ISI database. "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change" According to her 75% seem to support the 'consensus view'.

Benny Peiser claimed to have found errors in her work. To make an open judgement, a useful reference is to look at the abstracts of the articles that came up with the same search as Oreskes did: Oreskes abstracts

Petition by scientists

The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine has been running a petition project in support of a research document with the following abstract:

"World leaders gathered in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997 to consider a world treaty restricting emissions of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide (CO2), that are thought to cause global warming severe increases in Earth's atmospheric and surface temperatures, with disastrous environmental consequences. Predictions of global warming are based on computer climate modeling, a branch of science still in its infancy. The empirical evidence actual measurements of Earth's temperature shows no man-made warming trend. Indeed, over the past two decades, when CO2 levels have been at their highest, global average temperatures have actually cooled slightly.

To be sure, CO2 levels have increased substantially since the Industrial Revolution, and are expected to continue doing so. It is reasonable to believe that humans have been responsible for much of this increase. But the effect on the environment is likely to be benign. Greenhouse gases cause plant life, and the animal life that depends upon it, to thrive. What mankind is doing is liberating carbon from beneath the Earth's surface and putting it into the atmosphere, where it is available forconversion into living organisms.""

This petition was signed by over 17,000 qualified scientists, most of them verified.

http://www.oism.org/pproject Explanation of the 17000+ initial signers