Climate Change Proponents vs. Deniers

¶ … global climate change and the polarized viewpoints that result when some members of the media and other publicly visible individuals cast doubts on the existing scientific findings. A thesis is not offered in this paper but the juxtaposition of viewpoints presented allows the reader to judge the quality of the arguments based on the choice of language, the tone, the relevant data and the source.

Global climate change has become a highly controversial issue -- and has confused many citizens because bona fide scientific findings are frequently rejected and even ridiculed by high-profile media pundits and some conservative politicians -- hence this paper compares and contrasts scientific reports with attacks from individuals who deny the existence of climate change (and are in denial as to the fact that human activities are responsible).

A recent 18-page report released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -- the world's largest scientific body with 120,000 members -- asserts that world leaders "must act more swiftly to slow greenhouse gas emissions" lest "potentially irreversible changes" occur (Barboza, 2014). But, on the other hand, U.S. Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma, insists that he has "…offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax. That conclusion is supported by the painstaking work of the nation's top climate scientists" (Inhofe, 2003).

Inhofe, the ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, went on to say that "not fossil fuel" but "natural variability" is the "overwhelming factor influencing climate change" (Senate speech, 2003). Meanwhile the AAAS cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the leading international body for the assessment of climate change -- as having reported through empirical research (including ice core research dating back thousands of years) that the planet has "…warmed about 1.4 degrees since the late 1800s" (Barboza).

The IPCC's "Fifth Assessment Report" (March, 2014) concludes that "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal…each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850" (IPCC, 2014). Notwithstanding the empirical data presented by the IPCC, media pundit Rush Limbaugh, whose daily radio show is aired on approximately 600 stations, insists that "…there's absolutely no evidence. It's a total hoax…an absolute total hoax they couldn't prove" (Limbaugh, 2014).

Limbaugh went on to assert that those who accept global climate change are looking "…to find a way to permeate the minds of these young people who have been propagandized and who want to believe that there's disaster and imminent danger at every turn" (Limbaugh). However, while Inhofe and Limbaugh's attacks on the science of this issue have helped to create doubt in the minds of the public -- and have produced a seeming ideological divide in the U.S.

-- the AAAS reports that "…97% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change." That is a consensus comparable to the science "linking smoking to heart and lung disease" (Barboza). When observing the dramatic juxtaposition between those discounting climate change and those scientists reporting empirical data, it is interesting to note the care taken in the narratives of both sides. "…Satellite data, confirmed by NOAA balloon measurements, confirms that no meaningful warming has occurred over the last century" (Inhofe).

Contrasted with Inhofe's assertion is this pronouncement by the IPCC (which includes scientists from 190 nations): "It is virtually certain that globally the troposphere has warmed since the mid-20th century…for the longest period when calculation of regional trends is sufficiently complete (1901-2012), almost the entire globe has experienced warming" (IPCC). And so as regards climate change,.