In the wake of 'hide the decline' and words like 'trick' regarding the 'hockey stick graph', ClimateGate and the resulting drop in confidence among the public about climate science researchers, two hundred fifty-five members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Prize laureates, have joined together to defend the rigor and objectivity of climate science.
Their statement, "Climate Change and the Integrity of Science," will be published in Science tomorrow as the lead Letter, along with a supporting editorial.
The signed statement explains the scientific research process and confirms the fundamental conclusions about climate change based on the work of thousands of scientists worldwide. It specifically reaffirms "compelling, comprehensive, and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystems on which we depend" and highlights that there is nothing identified in recent events that has changed the fundamental conclusions about climate change.
The statement also condemns recent political attacks on climate scientists, most of whom were not engaged in the efforts to manipulate public perception of findings, and they contend skeptics are primarily driven by special interests or dogma and not an honest effort to provide an alternative theory that satisfies the evidence.
Policing their own was not addressed in the letter, though it would go a long way toward assuring the public that the signatories are also not driven by special interests or dogma and are engaged in honest efforts to promote evidence-driven science.
Evidence shows that the planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities and that warming the planet causes complex climate changes that affect people and the environment.
The scientists signing it are from 53 different disciplines, like environmental sciences and ecology, chemistry, geology, geophysics, plant and microbial biology and came together in agreement to reiterate an urgent call to action: "Society has two choices: we can ignore the science and hide our heads in the sand and hope we are lucky, or we can act in the public interest to reduce the threat of global climate change quickly and substantively."