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Global Warming Issues

Decent Essays

In late 2012, the Wall Street Journal published an article written and supported by sixteen scientists called, “No Need to Panic About Global Warming.” The article’s main argument claimed mainstream climate experts were wrong about the effect greater carbon dioxide levels had on the environment as well as the threat global warming posed to society. The contrarian scientists attempted to refute mainstream scientific findings that carbon dioxide levels were rising rapidly throughout the past decade and that carbon dioxide itself was a pollutant. The dissenting scientists claimed that influxes of CO2 throughout the earth’s atmosphere over time has actually been beneficial to the environment and that global warming is not the impending threat …show more content…

Adversaries even likened the op-ed researchers’ climate-science equivalency to that of “dentists practicing cardiology.” (Trenberth) Mainstream scientists found the contrarian authors’ lack of credibility was most prominently portrayed through their argument which completely misrepresented the majority consensus on climate change research and the overall field of climate science. In the op-ed, the climate science field was portrayed as faction of notable scientists with varying views on the extent and risk of global warming but that contrarian opinions, that wouldn’t conform to the alarmist majority, were silenced by scientists who hyperbolized global warming’s threats to society. Mainstream climate scientists saw this as a crude misrepresentation of their field and hit back with the fact that at the time, among climate experts, there was a general consensus of over 97% that global warming was anthropogenic as well as an imminent threat to human and environmental wellness.(Trenberth) They went on to claim that the journal’s severe distortion of the field of climate research was misinforming the public by publicizing, and at times even praising outlandish accusations by minority dissenting scientists. Many researchers and public officials were angered by the paper’s misrepresentations arguing the Wall Street Journal was simply fueling

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