1,700 British scientists have signed a statement put out by the Met Office declaring that they have the “utmost confidence” in the science behind climate change. The statement and signatures comes after emails by prominent climate change researchers were stolen from the University of East Anglia. Critics say that the emails show that the researchers have hidden and manipulated evidence. However, many scientists, including those who sent the emails, contend that statements in the emails have been taken out of context by climate change deniers and the media.
The Met Office statement proclaims that the “evidence and the science are deep and extensive” for climate change, involving “decades of painstaking and meticulous research, by many thousands of scientists across the world who adhere to the highest levels of professional integrity”. The statement also agrees with a conclusion by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) that human activities are “very likely” the cause of rising temperatures. The IPCC has stated that there is a 90 percent certainty that humans are behind climate change.
One signatory to the statement told The Times that he felt pressured to sign the document. However, Julia Slingo, chief scientist at the Met Office responded: “as a scientist you sign things you agree with, not because you are worried about what the Met Office might think of you.”
Last Friday, in light of the stolen emails, the IPCC also released a statement that said it stood behind its decades-long work on climate change science.
“The warming in the climate system is unequivocal. It is based on measurements made by many independent institutions worldwide that demonstrate significant changes on land, in the atmosphere, the ocean and in the ice-covered areas of the Earth,” the statement said.
Earlier this year a poll showed that 97 percent of climatologists agree that not only is climate change occurring, but humans play a role.
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