Royal Society pushes real climate science

The Royal Society has published a guide to the controversies surrounding climate change in an attempt to clearly state where the weight of scientific evidence lies.

The guide – published on the Society’s web site – presents an overview of the current state of scientific understanding of climate change and aims to help non-experts better understand some of the debates in this complex area of science.

In a statement the Royal Society said: “Policymakers, industry and the public must make informed decisions about what actions to take rather than be misinformed by lobbyists for big business or programmes such as Channel 4's recent ‘Great Global Warming Swindle’.

“Those who seek to distort and undermine the science of climate change and deny the seriousness of the potential consequences of global warming put forward a range of arguments most of which misrepresent the existing research. It is vital that the scientific evidence on climate change is accurately represented.”
 
The guide - complied with the help of the Royal Society Climate Change Advisory Group - is set out as a series of responses to six key arguments that have been put forward by those skeptical that humans have had an effect on climate change.

The overriding message from the guide is that no action would be irresponsible and dangerous: “Our scientific understanding of climate change is sufficiently sound to make us highly confident that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming. Science moves forward by challenge and debate and this will continue. However, none of the current criticisms of climate science, nor the alternative explanations of global warming are well enough founded to make not taking any taking action the wise choice.”

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