The alleged 97 percent consensus among scientists on global warming does not seem to hold up in the land down under.
The Australian newspaper reported that the Geological Society of Australia has once again been unsuccessful in publishing a position statement on global warming that their members can agree on because of “divisions within its membership on the issue.”
Geological Society of Australia president Laurie Hutton said in a statement that global warming “had the potential to be too divisive and would not serve the best interests of the society as a whole.”
GSA’s backing away from taking a position on global warming has angered some members who say it’s an “embarrassment” that puts Australian scientists behind the international scientific community on the issue.
But this seems to fly in the face of claims made by politicians and environmentalists that nearly all scientists agree on global warming. It is often claimed that 97 percent of climate scientists agree that mankind is causing global warming.
The 97 percent claim, however, has been picked apart by independent analysts who examined the numbers in the study done by Aussie climate researcher John Cook of the University of Queensland.
Five climatologists published in the journal Science and Education last year found that Cook’s study misrepresented the views of most scientists surveyed. Only 41 out of the 11,944 published climate studies examined by Cook explicitly stated that mankind caused most of the warming since 1950 — meaning the actual consensus is 0.3 percent.
“It is astonishing that any journal could have published a paper claiming a 97% climate consensus when on the authors’ own analysis the true consensus was well below 1%,” said Dr. David Legates, a geology professor at the University of Delaware and the study’s lead author.
The GSA represents more than 2,000 Aussie scientists in academia, industry, government and research groups. The group will not be taking an official position on global warming, though their members all have different views on the topic.
“After a long and extensive and extended consultation with society members, the GSC executive committee has decided not to proceed with a climate change position statement,” Hutton said in a statement.
“As evidenced by recent letters to the editor … society members have diverse opinions on the human impact on climate change,” Hutton continued. “However, diversity of opinion can also be divisive, especially when such views are strongly held.”
“The executive committee has therefore concluded that a climate change position statement has the potential to be far too divisive and would not serve the best interests of the society as a whole,” Hutton said.
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