Only the right wing nuts in this country seriously disbelieve the overwhelmingly accepted science that there is a man-made problem of global warming. It is not a curse from God, it is our own curse on ourselves from man-made stupid. It has nothing to do with gays or abortion, and everything to do with willful ignorance. There is world wide consensus on the problem of global warming; only here in the U.S. are we leading the world in stupid, because of the insanity and willful ignorance of the right wing extremists like the Tea Party. ONLY among the willfully stupid and ignorant in the US is there any substantial rejection of the definitive science of global warming:
The scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth's climate system is unequivocally warming, and it is more than 90% certain that humans are causing most of it through activities that increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels. In addition, it is likely that some potential further greenhouse gas warming has been offset by increased aerosols.[1][2][3][4] This scientific consensus is expressed in synthesis reports, by scientific bodies of national or international standing, and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists. Individual scientists, universities, and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications, and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these high level reports and surveys.So long as these people who CHOOSE to be wrong, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, more people will suffer and die; some slowly, some quickly and horrifically, like these fire fighters.
National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on climate change. These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), summarized below:
No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points
- Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.[5]
- Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities.[6]
- "Benefits and costs of climate change for [human] society will vary widely by location and scale.[7] Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative.[7] Overall, net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming."[7]
- "[...] the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time"[8]
- "The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change, associated disturbances (e.g. flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean acidification) and other global change drivers (e.g. land-use change, pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, over-exploitation of resources)"[9]