Scientists’ Views about Attribution of Global Warming
Results are presented from a survey held among 1868 scientists studying various aspects of climate change, including physical climate, climate impacts, and mitigation. The survey was unique in its size, broadness and level of detail. Consistent with other research, the researchers found that, as the level of expertise in climate science grew, so too did the level of agreement on anthropogenic causation. 90% of respondents with more than 10 climate-related peer-reviewed publications (about half of all respondents), explicitly agreed with anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) being the dominant driver of recent global warming. The survey was conducted by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, in collaboration with researchers from the Netherlands and Australia.
The respondents’ quantitative estimate of the greenhouse gas (GHG) contribution appeared to strongly depend on the judgment or knowledge of the cooling effect of aerosols. The phrasing of the IPCC attribution statement in its fourth assessment report (AR4) providing a lower limit for the isolated. GHG contribution may have led to an underestimation of the GHG influence on recent warming. The phrasing was improved in AR5. We also report on the respondents’ views on other factors contributing to global warming; of these Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC) was considered the most important. Respondents who characterized human influence on climate as insignificant, reported having had the most frequent media coverage regarding their views on climate change.
Authors
Specifications
- Publication title
- Scientists’ Views about Attribution of Global Warming
- Publication date
- 11 August 2014
- Publication type
- Publication
- Magazine
- Environmental Science and Technology
- Product number
- 508