What do people think that scientists really think?

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on Tuesday morning, Sept. 2, 2014. 

"87 Percent of Americans Unaware There's Scientific Consensus on Climate Change

By Pam Wright

July 11 2017 10:00 AM EDT

weather.com

  LINK TO ARTICLE

This short article on FaceBook caught my eye a few days ago. Most people do know that Climate Change is real, and human caused, but do not attribute this to knowledge of science apparently.

"The annual survey of 1,266 adults compiled in May and June failed to note that it is actually 97 percent of climate scientists that concur that human-caused global warming is happening. 

The most common but incorrect response from the survey was that there is a 50 percent consensus among the scientific community that global warming is real and human-caused. One in four responded that they did not know."

These statistics are so convoluted that I'm not sure what the substance of the article really is. The author reports that...

"According to the report published last week by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, only 13 percent of Americans were able to correctly identify that more than 90 percent of all climate scientists have concluded that climate change is real.

And in conclusion she gives a quote from the actual surveyors...

"Public misunderstanding of the scientific consensus – which has been found in each of our surveys since 2008 – has significant consequences," the researchers note in the Yale-GMU report.

"Other research has identified public understanding of the scientific consensus as an important 'gateway belief' that influences other important beliefs," the researchers said, including the beliefs that global warming is happening, is human caused, is a serious problem and is solvable.

Researchers also noted that this lack of understanding hinders support for action. 

On the other hand, seven in 10 Americans do believe climate change is happening, which nearly matches the highest level (71 percent) recorded since the survey began 2008. Over half of Americans (58 percent) believe global warming is mostly human-caused — the highest number recorded since the survey began — while 30 percent say it is mostly a natural occurrence.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

That boxed disclaimer by the Weather Company (who posted this and probably paid for it on FaceBook) certainly makes one smile. IBM owns the Weather Company.

My conclusion is that it's good to have people know that scientists know something...and it's also interesting to pick through these statistics and find that only 30 percent of those surveyed (were they college students, I wonder) think global warming (not the phrase climate change) is a naturally caused occurrence.

Food for thought.