The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism

Scientific skepticism is healthy. In fact, science by its very nature is skeptical. Genuine skepticism means considering the full body of evidence before coming to a conclusion. However, when you take a close look at arguments expressing climate ‘skepticism’, what you often observe is cherry picking of pieces of evidence while rejecting any data that don’t fit the desired picture. This isn’t skepticism. It is ignoring facts and the science.

The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism looks at both the evidence that human activity is causing global warming and the ways that climate ‘skeptic’ arguments can mislead by presenting only small pieces of the puzzle rather than the full picture. 

If you have any questions about any part of the Guide, feel free to post your questions or comments on the Skeptical Science Forum. For those who wish to dig deeper into the rebuttals of skeptic arguments, more detailed versions can be found at the following pages:

• Human CO2 emissions is tiny compared to natural emissions
• Global warming stopped in 1998
• It's cooling
• Climate sensitivity is low
• Climate has changed in the past
• CO2 lags temperature
• CO2 doesn't cause much warming
• The warming trend is due to microsite influences
• The temperature record is unreliable
  
• The hockey stick is broken
• Global warming is a good thing
• Climategate shows there's a conspiracy among climate scientists
• There's no scientific consensus