Beware of the fossil fools

This article in the Guardian is an oldie but a goodie. As a scientist I have been continually pissed off with the medias' so-called 'balanced' reporting on climate change. When 99% of the climatologists are saying global warming is happening and 1% are saying its not, why do media outlets like the BBC persist in giving both views equal air time? At the very least they could mention the fact that the supporting evidence for global warming outweighs that for other opinions. Otherwise If the media people are going to continue this farce they might as well invite the smoking-doesn't-contribute-to-lung-cancer and HIV-doesn't-cause-AIDS loonies to elaborate on their opinions as well.

Granted, many successful scientific theories start with a small number of supporters. But as evidence accumulates and the theory survives scientific testing, that small number of proponents eventually grows to a majority of scientists, at which point the theory becomes scientific dogma. In the case of climate change we are well on the way in this process. Very few scientists thought the world was heating up 30 years ago. Now almost all scientists agree that global warming is happening. There is still debate around how much of the global warming can be attributed directly to human activity, but again the trend is clear. As we accumulate evidence the picture is pointing more and more towards the greenhouse effect as a primary cause.