Global Climate Change and Despair: A Way Out

The Sandy Island Syndromes: On Seeing What Is Not There and Not Seeing What Is There

“…This minority position conflicts with the great majority of climate scientists around the world, who are convinced that the evidence for human-caused planetary global warming is overwhelming. 55 In May 2013, a study published in Environmental Research Letters analyzed the evolution of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, examining 11,944 climate abstracts from 1991-2011 matching the topics "global climate change" or "global warming." Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1 percent endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming.…”

“…One US senator has called for an investigation into what he calls a "denial-for-hire" scheme in which, he alleges, fossil fuel corporations essentially purchase the opinion they prefer from ethics-challenged scientists. 66,67 This situation is beginning to resemble the tobacco controversies of the 1990s, in which "tobacco scientists" aligned themselves with the corporate interests of their masters who wrote their paychecks.…”