Announcing the Launch of Warming World on Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Today we are excited to announce the launch of #WarmingWorld, a global coalition of climate change advocates, who use their social voice to distribute a weekly climate action roundup. The focus of our first post is on the public’s misconception that there is a lack of consensus among the climate science community. If you want to act on making a difference by using your voice to bring more awareness on this subject, please join our global coalition and share #WarmingWorld with others.

Making Sense of the Climate Science Consensus

Polarization between Americans who believe and those who doubt climate science has long been debated. This conversation is especially heating up more than ever as monthly average temperatures hit new milestones. Despite new climate science studies, climate change remains a controversial topic that has opinions among the population divided.

In fact, a 2014 study from the US Pew Research Center found that less than half of Americans thought scientists agreed on humans causing climate change. With so much published climate science research revealing an obvious cause-effect relationship between increased CO2 levels from human activity and climate change, how is it even possible that we have not reached a consensus? In the words of Joe Hanson, “The climate change ship has left the dock and lot’s of people on shore are still debating whether boats can actually float.”

A major contributor to why the public is not believing the climate scientists have reached a consensus may actually be related to the way climate science is covered in the media. Skeptical Science points out the possibility of a false balance in the media, and how the fossil fuel industry’s misinformation campaign aims to inflate the skepticism and split the cause of what is triggering climate change. Here, you can read more about how the media has actually created an unbalanced perception of reality, preventing some from joining the human caused climate change consensus.

According to The Consensus Project, 97% of scientists working in the disciplines contributing to studies of climate science accept that climate change is almost certainly being caused by human activities. Additionally, there are no national or major scientific institutions anywhere in the world that dispute the theory of anthropogenic climate change. Not one. This consensus is on the same level as us all agreeing that the earth is a planet. In fact, one of the largest companies to gain from human caused climate change denial (Exxon), recently released a statement confirming that the risk of climate change is clear.

So again we ask the question, how is it that many people still do not accept that there is a consensus? Ever since starting the #WarmingWorld project, we ourselves have experienced a barrage of skepticism. Here is a quick example coming from our own Facebook Page, where the majority of comments reflect an opposition to making climate change a priority.

It is clear that a lack of knowledge on this topic is a big part of the problem. We believe that education plays a key role in the battle against this sort of skepticism and everyone should do their part to discuss climate change with friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. It starts with each of us. The public debate around climate change is no longer about science—it’s about political ideology and this makes it harder to close the consensus gap and move faster towards a clean planet. Perhaps, because most of the population is not a climate science expert, it may be hard to understand the “why” or “how” of human activity’s impact on climate change. Below you’ll find an excellent video from Joe Hanson that helps tackle these questions:


If you still don’t agree, check out these 10 most common climate change denier arguments debunked below:

  • 1
    "Climate’s changed before"

    Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing. Read more

  • 2
    "It’s the sun"

    In the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been going in opposite directions. Read more

  • 3
    "It’s not bad"

    Negative impacts of global warming on agriculture, health & environment far outweigh any positives. Read more

  • 4
    "There is no consensus"

    97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming. Read more

  • 5
    "It’s cooling"

    The last decade 2000-2009 was the hottest on record. Read more

  • 6
    "Models are unreliable"

    Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean. Read more

  • 7
    "Temp record is unreliable"

    The warming trend is the same in rural and urban areas, measured by thermometers and satellites. Read more

  • 8
    "Animals and plants can adapt"

    Global warming will cause mass extinctions of species that cannot adapt on short time scales. Read more

  • 9
    "It hasn’t warmed since 1998"

    Every part of the Earth’s climate system has continued warming since 1998, with 2015 shattering temperature records. Read more

  • 10
    "Antarctica is gaining ice"

    Satellites measure Antarctica losing land ice at an accelerating rate. Read more

In conclusion, we believe that awareness of the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change is a key factor in people’s decisions whether or not to support action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, our goal is to use technology and a community of climate change champions to create a global coordinated megaphone that informs the public about climate change on a regular basis. Read more about our mission here. This is the very first message coming from the #WarmingWorld megaphone! Join us in our mission to inform the world by joining our global coalition and adding your voice to our weekly climate action digest.

Participate now

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Company or Project of the week

4 Earth 4 Home project is supporting climate action with supportive slogans and local temperatures uploaded from personal monitor. Support their Kickstarter Campaign.


Is your company or project making a difference to act on climate change? We want to feature you here in future roundups. Please reach out to us on twitter.



Shout out of the week

Thank you to Skeptical Science for providing meaningful content related to climate science available under Creative Commons (CC) license.

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