The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
Open accessAbstract
Policy-makers and the public who are not members of the relevant research community have had to form opinions about the reality of global climate change on the basis of often conflicting descriptions provided by the media regarding the level of scientific certainty attached to studies of climate. In this Essay, Oreskes analyzes the existing scientific literature to show that there is a robust consensus that anthropogenic global climate change is occurring. Thus, despite claims sometimes made by some groups that there is not good evidence that Earth9s climate is being affected by human activities, the scientific community is in overwhelming agreement that such evidence is clear and persuasive.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Scientists agree that carbon dioxide produced by human activity is at least partially affecting climate change.
“Scientists agree that carbon dioxide produced by human activity is at least partially affecting climate change [122].”
From Use Cases for Design Personas: A Systematic Review and New Frontiers (2022) · cites this paper as [122]
The planet is experiencing a period of rapid global warming.
“El planeta está experimentando un período de rápido calentamiento global (Oreskes 2004).”
From Túnidos tropicales: calentamiento global y seguridad alimentaria, una visión global (2019) · cites this paper as Oreskes 2004
There is scientific consensus that the planet is warming.
“Despite scientific consensus that the planet is warming (Oreskes 2004)”
From "Global warming" or "climate change"?: Whether the planet is warming depends on question wording (2011) · cites this paper as Oreskes 2004
Cites
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Cited by
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“El planeta está experimentando un período de rápido calentamiento global (Oreskes 2004).”
Background
- Authors
- Oreskes, N.
- Affiliations
- The author is in the Department of History and Science Studies Program, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2004-12-03
- Volume
- 306
- Issue
- 5702
- Pages
- 1686-1686
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W1899062379
- Cited by
- 1,814
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 83 · 2024: 81 · 2023: 76 · 2022: 124 · 2021: 92 · 2020: 103 · 2019: 110 · 2018: 123 · 2017: 120 · 2016: 93 · 2015: 118 · 2014: 134 · 2013: 104 · 2012: 90
- FWCI
- 117.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Keywords
- climate change, scientific consensus, anthropogenic climate change, scientific certainty, public understanding of science
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