Question: What is your oppinion on global warming
Keywords: climate change, global, opinion, warming
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Hi Alexis,
That’s a question that could mean several different things, and I’m going to split my answer into several parts. It’s a little long — here goes…
1. As a scientist, I am not qualified to have an “opinion” on the SCIENCE OF global warming because I have not worked on climate science. (In other words, I’m the “wrong kind of scientist”.)
2. It is a FACT that scientists who DO work on climate change/global warming agree that (i) global warming is now happening and (ii) people cause it.
3. The noisy disagreement about whether man-made climate change is “real” goes on in the media and in politics, not in science.
4. So my OPINION is that people who still think that global warming is either not happening or not caused by people, when they themselves are not climate scientists, either: 1. have been tricked into believing that serious scientists still disagree; 2. love conspiracy theories; 3. are adopting an “ostrich policy” (they’re in denial, sticking their heads in the sand); or 4. only SAY they “don’t believe in” man-made global warming to confuse the public for their own benefit. It is also my opinion that it would be very interesting to study why and how this has happened!
5. The question that comes next is ‘What is your opinion on WHAT WE SHOULD DO about global warming?’ This is a very different question, and for me is mainly about government policy (decisions). In a democratic country, everybody is allowed to have an opinion, and everybody’s opinion counts when they vote at an election. You, being younger than 18, are not allowed to vote. But that’s a whole other issue…
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Hi Alexis,
Tricky question. There are so many people with a strong opinion about this, and they all seem to have arguments that are quite convincing! Because there are so many people talking about global warming, it is a huge challenge to sort out that information into bits that are true and bits that are false, or just hype. But that’s part of being a scientist – picking out the truth in a huge pile of rubbish.
Scientists find the truth because it is always backed up by *evidence*. But… the problem is that unless you analyse each piece of the evidence yourself, you can’t decide for sure, and so you have to rely on other people to inform you. Those people are climate scientists.
For me its about weighing up the risks. If you compare the risk of making changes (and costing money) with the risk of doing nothing, then the cost of making change and having the best chance of a better future wins every time.
So… because I am not a climate scientist, I have not analysed every piece of evidence to form a personal view on global warming. But… I strongly believe that any changes we make that will help preserve our environment have to be a good thing!
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Hi Alexis,
I am actually working in climate science – I am the Director of the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative. I can assure you that global warming is real. The average temperature of the easrth is rising as we have records that go back 100 years and can measure it.
Whether or not that increase in temperature is caused by human activity is another question. The vast majority of evidnce indicates that it is. We know that carbon dioxide concentrations are increasing and we know how carbon dioxide (and other human produced gases) affect the energy balance of the earth, so we are pretty sure that increasing the levels of carbon dioxide will cause the earth to warm.
There is still a lof of scientifc discussion about how much the earth will warm. Some people think not very much, others think the other way that we may reach a tipping point where things will change dramatically (for example if Antarctica were to melt). We need to do more research to understand the earth’s climate better so we can predict what effects our actions will have.
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I don’t think I can really add anything to the other answers other than that I agree.
The thing that is really important to remember is that what you hear politicians say and what’s in the media more often than not isn’t the full story – and this is certainly the case when it comes to climate change. The media and politicians both love dramas – it’s what sells newspapers and what gets voters to get so passionate for certain issues (in a good or bad way). The science of climate change (and other things) can sometimes get lost in the midst of all the drama!
This is why it’s really important to get scientists to work closely with the media to make sure the stories they are reporting in TV and newspapers are accurate. There is actually a Science Media Centre in Adelaide which is trying to do just that – so hopefully this will mean that there will be more good (and by good, I really mean accurate) science in the media in the future!
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