A new study finds that 97 percent of peer-reviewed papers on climate science agreed that human activity is driving climate change. Fox News has yet to report on these findings, after repeatedly insisting that there is no scientific consensus on the issue.
The survey, published last week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, analyzed nearly 12,000 peer-reviewed papers published between 1991 and 2011. Of the 4,000 that took a position on the causes of climate change, 97 percent agreed that it is anthropogenic, and less than one percent disputed the scientific consensus. This survey is the most comprehensive of its kind, building on a 2004 review which found that not a single peer-reviewed paper rejected manmade climate change over the previous decade.
Polls have consistently shown that the vast majority of climate scientists agree that human activity is contributing to rising global temperatures. But that hasn't stopped Fox News from claiming that there is “no consensus” among scientists on the causes of climate change and that the science is “deep in dispute”:
Given its long history of promoting climate misinformation, it's no surprise that Fox News is ignoring this latest affirmation of the climate consensus. When a University of Maryland study found that Fox News viewers were more misinformed than other news consumers on the scientific consensus around climate change, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace dismissed the issue as a matter of opinion. Another study from Stanford University similarly found that "more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists' claims about global warming."
