The climate change deniers have won
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/22/the-climate-change-deniers-have-won/
The climate change deniers have won
By Nick Cohen, The Observer
Saturday, March 22, 2014 14:27 EDT
Scientists continue to warn us about global warming, but most of us have a vested interest in not wanting to think about it
The American Association for the Advancement of Science came as close as such a respectable institution can to screaming an alarm last week. As scientists, it is not our role to tell people what they should do, it said as it began one of those sentences that you know will build to a but. But human-caused climate risks abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes.
In other words, the most distinguished scientists from the country with the worlds pre-eminent educational institutions were trying to shake humanity out of its complacency. Why werent their warnings leading the news?
In one sense, the associations appeal was not new. The Royal Society, the Royal Institution, Nasa, the US National Academy of Sciences, the US Geological Survey, the IPCC and the national science bodies of 30 or so other countries have said that man-made climate change is on the march. A survey of 2,000 peer-reviewed papers on global warming published in the last 20 years found that 97% said that humans were causing it.