What are some reasons why global warming is not an issue?

Answer 1

Yes, there are a number of scientists.

A list of more than 31,000 climatologists, physicists, mathematicians, and other qualified scientists by name, degree, and affiliation, have rejected the theory of "man generated global warming." The "Petition Project" receives no outside funding of any kind. While it is not difficult to find organizations that officially take a stand on the side of global warming, to date there is no list of scientists who have researched Global Warming and stand by the models or conclusions of the IPCC. The suggestion that a majority of scientists agree with the IPCC is a widely held belief and often stated without question. Each year the participants in the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have a representation of scientists who directly dispute the theory. In 2008, 650 invited scientists directly disputed the theory. One of the primary concerns noted by climate change supporters is the question, "Who is funded and by whom?" It should be noted that NASA, one of the most quoted and respected research and advocacy organizations promoting action on global warming, receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually to study global warming. It is a telling fact that only in retirement, key officials of NASA are willing to go on record as opposing or unconvinced that human activity is the cause of catastrophic climate change. Among these are Dr. John Theon (NASA Supervisor), Dr. Joanne Simpson (eminently respected meteorological scientist), and Michael Griffin (NASA Administrator). Two positive developments are taking place as a result of more scientists' willingness to go on record in opposition to the assumed "consensus" in the scientific community. First, open debate is becoming more apparent. Websites are beginning to post more detailed data, and in some cases both sides of the debate. Second, the initial vitriol for or against the theory has begun to be replaced by a call for scientific dialogue.

The suggestion that 97% of scientists concur on the issue of AGW is unsubstantiated by research. The only study on the issue of scientific consensus of scientists working in climate related fields was done by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and published 10 April 2015. Of the 6500 scientists surveyed, 43% agreed with the IPCC proposition that it is "extremely likely that more than half of [global warming] from 1951-2010 was caused by [human activity]."

Answer 2

Once scientists accepted that global warming is real, there are few who would consider that this is not a concern. One scientist who did believe that global warming was not a concern, although not himself a climate scientist, was Richard Muller. A longtime critic of government-led climate studies, Professor Muller felt that the extent of global warming was exaggerated. He set out to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of sceptics, but unexpectedly told a congressional hearing the work of the three principal groups that have analysed the temperature trends underlying climate science is "excellent ... We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups."

Answer 3

They are extremely concerned. Most scientists regard global warming as the most serious problem facing our species. Even Bjorn Lomborg, the Skeptical Environmentalist, has recently changed his mind regarding this issue.

Some scientists, particularly coal and petroleum engineers, have a vested financial interest in finding no connection between increased heat trapping gas emissions and global warming. Scientists are people too, and some of them have political reasons for rejecting scientific findings. Some scientists think the world is too big to be affected by the actions of only seven billion people. Others may think that if climate could change naturally in the past, then it must be impossible for current change to be driven by human activity. There are many reasons scientists might not be concerned about global warming. Bjorn Lomborg used to think human induced climate change was not an immediate concern because the major environmental impact was decades or centuries away, not just years away.

Answer 4

Some say that global warming is not an issue because it is not really happening, although this denies the meterological record.

Some say that global warming is not an issue because it has already stopped, although others point out that the last ten years were the warmest on record.

Some say that global warming is not an issue because, although it is real and continuing to occur, it will cause no harm to Western nations.

Some say that global warming is not an issue because, although it is real and continuing to occur, it will bring benefits to some people, thereby balancing the harm done to others.

Answer 5

It is not possible to know all the motives in a person's mind. We can only hazard guesses.

• Some believe the government is trying to seize control of their lives.
• Some resent being told what to do in the way of reducing pollution, recycling, use of energy efficient light bulbs etc.
• Some accept that global warming is happening and causing climate change, but they don't believe humans, fossil fuels, deforestation and carbon dioxide pollution have anything to do with it.
• Some get funding from oil companies and other big businesses to do research with particular goals.

Answer 6

The theory of anthropogenic ("human caused") global warming (AGW) enables scientists to make certain predictions of what might happen in the future. So far, few of these predictions have worked out, so there's lots of reason to believe that the AGW proponents do not understand what's going on. And when the AGW folks are caught lying or fabricating evidence, those are more reasons to be suspect of the accuracy of their claims.
One further problem was that in the 1970's when the scientists like Carl Sagan were warning of the coming ice age, their recommendations for economic and social changes were the same recommendations that people are making about global warming. We get the impression that these are POLITICAL recommendations, not not scientific recommendations.

The fact is that the world has been both substantially warmer than it is now, and substantially COLDER than it is now, on cycles of several hundred or a thousand years.

Answer 7

The vast majority of climate scientists who have been published and peer-reviewed accept that global warming and climate change are happening and they are caused by human activity.

There is a small number of scientists who disagree, but hardly any are climate scientists working in the field.

Answer 8

Yes, there are a few. One of the most widely cited surveys of scientific opinion was produced by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in 2015.

The survey contacted 6550 people to ascertain scientific opinion on a range of issues relating to climate change. Of those contacted, 1868 filled out the report, in part or in full. The PBL invited non-scientist sceptics to take part in the survey, to ensure that the main criticisms of climate science would be included, but these non-scientists constitute less than 5% of the survey respondents. This report states that viewpoints that run counter to the prevailing consensus are therefore somewhat magnified in the survey-results.

In the PBL-study, among respondents with more than 10 peer-reviewed publications (half of total respondents), 90 per cent agree that greenhouse gases are the largest – or tied for largest - contributor to recent warming. The level of agreement is ~85 per cent for all respondents.

As most surveys find a consensus of around 97 per cent consensus, the report authors considered factors that may have led to such a low a consensus in this survey. One immediate reason was the intentional inclusion in the survey of known sceptics without comparable scientific expertise. Another was the nature of the PBL question and the standard used for what constitutes the consensus position. For example, some scientists might have answered that greenhouse gases are "one of the largest contributors" to recent warming, had that option been canvassed. Some scientists are thought to have had insufficient expertise in relevant areas to declare a firm position.

The survey also found that 91.4 per cent of respondents were very concerned or somewhat concerned about climate change as a long-term problem. 6.2 per cent were not very concerned and only 2.3 per cent were not concerned at all.

Various surveys consistently show that only a small minority of scientists do not agree with the consensus. Some may have not yet formed an opinion, while others might actually believe that global warming is not that great a problem.