query: IPCC human-caused global warming attribution confidence is unfounded.

positive: Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are :  increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases  global changes to land surface , such as deforestation  increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols .   There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity .   According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence .   Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities :  A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established .  Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual .  Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included .  Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming .   The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .

positive: Scientific consensus on climate change There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports.  Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.

positive: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation .   The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .

positive: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP .  The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . ''   The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources .   Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries .   The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .

negative: The Real Global Warming Disaster The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated .   From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' .   The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions .   The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .

negative: IPCC Third Assessment Report The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 .   Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .

negative: Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect .   Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture .   It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .

negative: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is an organisation based in New Zealand which has the aim of refuting what it claims are unfounded claims about anthropogenic global warming .

negative: An Appeal to Reason An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .

negative: Effects of global warming The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity .   Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option .   Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .

negative: Copenhagen Diagnosis The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date .   The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 .   In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are :   Surging Greenhouse gas emissions  Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % .  Human-induced warming  Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun .  Acceleration of melting ice caps  Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise .  Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline  According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 .  Underestimation of changing sea levels  In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted .  Damage due to inaction  A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more .  Turning point must come soon  The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . ''  The Future  By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .

negative: Reasons for concern The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .

negative: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to "deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require "deep emissions reductions" and "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." Furthermore, the report finds that "limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, "Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050." The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.

negative: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''

negative: Vincent R. Gray __ NOTOC __   Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition .   Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association .  He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases .   He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic ''  He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming :  `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . ''   Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems .   Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic .   In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''

negative: Seasonal Attribution Project The Seasonal Attribution Project is a Climateprediction.net sub-project , with support from the WWF . It runs a high resolution model in order to try to determine the extent to which extreme weather events are attributable to human-induced global warming .   The project did cease giving out more work , however there has been a project extension to try a fourth sea surface temperature pattern . Current work will still be accepted and used for collaborations and possibly revisions of papers during the review process .   A further extension will start soon .

negative: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies .   It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report .   The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''

negative: History of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .   Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .

negative: Effects of global warming on humans Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate .   To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative .   The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .

negative: Global warming conspiracy theory A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus .  Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .

negative: Long-term effects of global warming See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 .   There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .

negative: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science .   The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .

negative: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor .   The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .

negative: Hurricane Katrina and global warming The tremendous destruction caused by recent Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones , such as Hurricanes Katrina , Wilma , and Sandy caused a substantial upsurge in interest in the subject of global warming by news media and the wider public , and concerns that global climatic change may have played a significant role in those events . Time Magazine , for example , published an article titled , `` Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina ? '' -- however , the article itself addressed hurricanes in general , rather than Katrina specifically , and was inconclusive .   Shortly after the hurricane , former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan wrote an op-ed piece for the Globe titled , `` Katrina 's Real Name '' , declaring that the hurricane 's `` real name is global warming . '' Gelbspan went on to assert :  `` Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida , it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico . ''  Gelbspan did not single out Katrina from other recent storms in that regard ; in the article he went on to attribute other major weather events over the preceding year to global warming , including a blizzard in Los Angeles , high winds in Scandinavia , wildfires in Spain , and a drought centered in Missouri .   Britain 's then deputy prime minister , John Prescott , has linked Katrina with global warming , and statements made shortly after the hurricane by Germany 's environment minister , Jürgen Trittin , indicate he believes that global warming is responsible for an increase in the frequency of destructive natural events .   Kerry Emanuel had recently published a paper in the journal Nature that found a good correlation between hurricane intensity and sea surface temperatures . Some journalists have claimed Emanuel 's paper concludes that the recent increase in intense Atlantic storms is due to global warming , but Emanuel stated that `` it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming '' .   The Internet blog RealClimate has written that `` there is no way to prove that Katrina either was , or was not , affected by global warming '' .

negative: The Deniers The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .

negative: Global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .

negative: Global dimming Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth 's surface that was observed for several decades after the start of systematic measurements in the 1950s . The effect varies by location , but worldwide it has been estimated to be of the order of a 4 % reduction over the three decades from 1960 -- 1990 . However , after discounting an anomaly caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , a very slight reversal in the overall trend has been observed .   Global dimming is thought to have been caused by an increase in particulates such as sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere due to human action .   It has interfered with the hydrological cycle by reducing evaporation and may have reduced rainfall in some areas . Global dimming also creates a cooling effect that may have partially counteracted the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming .

negative: IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .   The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established .   Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums  Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths  Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies   Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports .   The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes :   We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it .  We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ...  Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade .  There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets .  Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more .  under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .

negative: Climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming .   Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .

negative: Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally .   Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be .   Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .

negative: The Great Global Warming Swindle The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King .   The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols .   The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . ''   Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .

negative: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium .   Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .

negative: Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods .   Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system .   Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified .   Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .

negative: AGW AGW can refer to :    Anthropogenic global warming ; see the following :  Attribution of recent climate change  Human impact on the environment  Climate change  Global warming  Global warming controversy  Actual gold weight , a measure used in gold bullion , coin or bar  Agnew Airport , Queensland , Australia ( IATA code : AGW )  Access gateway , shorthand for multi-service access gateway ( MSAG ) , a device used in telecommunications .  Kahua language ( ISO 639-3 code : agw )

negative: Climate change adaptation Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming and climate change , that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming . Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon , global warming and its effects will last many years , and adaptation will be necessary to the resulting changes in climate . Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming . That is , the capacity and potential for humans to adapt ( called adaptive capacity ) is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations , and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt ( Schneider et al. , 2007 ) . Furthermore , the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues . Therefore , adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts . Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development ( IPCC , 2007 ) . The economic costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to cost billions of dollars annually for the next several decades , though the amount of money needed is unknown . Donor countries promised an annual $ 100 billion by 2020 through the Green Climate Fund for developing countries to adapt to climate change . However , while the fund was set up during COP16 in Cancún , concrete pledges by developed countries have not been forthcoming . The adaptation challenge grows with the magnitude and the rate of climate change .   Another response to climate change , known as climate change mitigation ( Verbruggen , 2007 ) is to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere ( through carbon sinks ) . Even the most effective reductions in emissions , however , would not prevent further climate change impacts , making the need for adaptation unavoidable ( Klein et al. , 2007 ) . In a literature assessment , Klein et al. ( 2007 ) assessed options for adaptation . They concluded , with very high confidence , that in the absence of mitigation efforts , the effects of climate change would reach such a magnitude as to make adaptation impossible for some natural ecosystems . Others are concerned that climate adaptation programs might interfere with the existing development programs and thus lead to unintended consequences for vulnerable groups . For human systems , the economic and social costs of unmitigated climate change would be very high .

negative: Human extinction In futures studies , human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species . This may be caused by natural causes or it may be anthropogenic , i.e. the result of human action .   The likelihood of human extinction in the near future by wholly natural scenarios , such as a meteorite impact or large-scale volcanism , is generally considered to be extremely low .   For anthropogenic extinction , many possible scenarios have been proposed : Human global nuclear annihilation , biological warfare or the release of a pandemic-causing agent , dysgenics , overpopulation , ecological collapse , and global warming ; in addition , emerging technologies could bring about new extinction scenarios , such as advanced artificial intelligence , biotechnology or self-replicating nanobots . The probability of anthropogenic human extinction within the next hundred years is the topic of an active debate .   Human extinction needs to be differentiated from the extinction of all life on Earth ( see also future of Earth ) and from the extinction of major components of human culture ( e.g. , through a global catastrophe leaving only small , scattered human populations , which might evolve in isolation ) .


query: “[T]he 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal  involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made  warming theory - a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern  science.

positive: Climatic Research Unit email controversy The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change .   The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas .   The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . ''   Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .

negative: Clinton scandal `` Clinton scandal '' might refer to either :   Hillary Clinton email controversy ( 2015-2016 ) , in which U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was found to have used unsecured , unofficial computer channels to transmit classified email .   or   Lewinsky scandal ( 1998 ) , involving then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and his sex scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky .

negative: Scott Basinger Scott Basinger is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston . He teaches courses in statistics , mathematics , game theory , and political scandals . He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California , San Diego . He has authored numerous articles , including an award-winning article on how countries reform their personal and corporate income taxes response to globalization . Along with Howie Lavine , he coined the term `` partisan ambivalence '' to describe the situation in which voters hold conflicted attitudes towards political parties . Most recently , he authored papers on political scandals , examining how presidents deal with scandal once confronted by the media , and how voters respond to scandals involving members of Congress .

negative: CCNY point shaving scandal The CCNY point shaving scandal of 1950 -- 51 was a college basketball point shaving gambling scandal that involved seven schools in all , with four in Greater New York and three in the Midwest . However , most of the key players in the scandal were players of the 1949 -- 50 CCNY Beavers men 's basketball team .

negative: Sex scandal A sex scandal is a scandal involving allegations or information about possibly-immoral sexual activities being made public . Sex scandals are often associated with sexual affairs of film stars , politicians , famous athletes or others in the public eye , and become scandals largely because of the prominence of the person involved , perceptions of hypocrisy on their part , or the non-normative or non-consensual nature of their sexuality . A scandal may be based on reality , the product of false allegations , or a mixture of both .   Sex scandals involving politicians often become political scandals , particularly when there is an attempt at a cover-up , or suspicions of illegality .   While some commentators see sex scandals as irrelevant to politics , particularly where `` professional performance -LSB- does -RSB- not seem to be impaired '' , Gene Healy of the Cato Institute views them as not just `` great fun '' , but a reminder `` that we should think twice before we cede more power to these clowns . ''

negative: Christopher C. Horner Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .

negative: Leonardo Fariña Leonardo Fariña ( born Jorge Fariña ; 5 October 1986 in La Plata ) is an Argentinian who was implicated in the political scandal known as The K money trail involving entrepreneur Lázaro Báez and the Kirchner government .   Until Fariña became the target of a probe into money laundering in 2013 , he was known to the Argentinian public chiefly as the husband of famous model Karina Jelinek , who separated from him after the scandal broke . Because of his high-level involvement in the money manipulations and his marriage to Jelinek , Fariña attracted a great deal of media attention and was identified as the `` man most wanted by the -LSB- TV interview -RSB- programs . '' The controversy swirling around both his personal and professional life caused La Nación to state that he was at the center of one of the `` scandals of the year . ''   As of mid 2014 , Fariña is in prison awaiting trial .

negative: Videoscandals The Videoscandals were political scandals in Mexico in 2004 when videos of prominent politicians taken with hidden cameras were made public . The majority of them involved politicians in corrupt dealings with former business man Carlos Ahumada , and another showed a politician spending money in Las Vegas .

negative: John Sirica John Joseph Sirica ( March 19 , 1904 -- August 14 , 1992 ) was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia , where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal . He rose to national prominence during the Watergate scandal when he ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations .   Sirica 's involvement in the case began when he presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars . He did not believe the claim that they had acted alone , and persuaded or coerced most of them to implicate the men who had arranged the break-in ( G. Gordon Liddy remained silent ) . For his role in Watergate the judge was named TIME magazine 's Man of the Year in 1973 .

negative: Tong Kee Tong Kee , also known as T. Aki , ( died October 7 , 1887 ) was a Chinese immigrant and businessman who settled in the Kingdom of Hawaii . In 1886 -- 87 , he was embroiled in the Aki opium scandal , an infamous bribery corruption scandal involving King Kalākaua and his henchman Junius Kaʻae reneging on a bribe Aki made to secure the sale of an opium license .

negative: Mysore Mallige Scandal The Mysore Mallige Scandal refers to a sex scandal in 2001 that involved the leaking of a home video made by a couple . This scandal broke out when the home video made by the couple themselves was leaked out by a friend of the boy involved . Both the boy and the girl were students of an engineering College . The words Mysore Mallige meaning the Jasmine ( in Kannada ) of Mysore is actually a double entendre because it originally refers to the flower variety by the same name .

negative: Fanne Foxe Fanne Foxe ( born Annabelle Battistella on February 14 , 1936 , in Nueve de Julio , Argentina ) is a former stripper , best known for being involved in a 1974 sex scandal surrounding Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills , in what is reputed to be one of the most reported political sex scandals of the 1970s . She is in the Time list of Top 10 Mistresses , and on the Bloomberg list of Top 10 U.S. sex scandals .

negative: Duna-gate Duna-gate , also known as Danubegate and Budapest Watergate , was a political scandal in Hungary that emerged in 1990 .   The scandal involved the wiretapping of political enemies by the officials within the Communist government 's secret services , the state security organisation of the Ministry of the Interior , and the shredding of state security documents . Activists had sneaked into government buildings and filmed evidence that surreptitious activities including the secret surveillance of political party leaders and activists even following the October 1989 downfall of the Communist regime precipitated by Mátyás Szűrös 23 October 1989 declaration that Hungary was a republic .   The Alliance of Free Democrats and the Alliance of Young Democrats held a press conference on 5 January 1990 to release evidence that officials of the state security organisation had collected private information on a number of people , an act made illegal by a 1989 Constitutional amendment . A key figure in the scandal was József Végvári , an intelligence officer within the secret services , who allowed the infiltration . Interior Minister István Horváth resigned due to the scandal .   The scandal was the subject of protests and government investigations , and may have contributed to the poor showing of the Hungarian Socialist Party in the 1990 Hungarian parliamentary election .

negative: False balance False balance is a real or perceived media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports . Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side , or may omit information that would establish one side 's claims as baseless .   Examples of false balance in reporting on science issues include the topics of man-made versus natural climate change , the alleged relation between thimerosal and autism and evolution versus intelligent design .   An example of false balance is the `` debate '' on global warming ; although the scientific community almost unanimously attributes global warming to the effects of the industrial revolution , there is a very small number , a few dozen scientists out of tens of thousands of scientists , who dispute the conclusion . Giving equal voice to scientists on both sides makes it seem like there is a serious disagreement within the scientific community , when in fact there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming exists .   False balance can sometimes originate from similar motives as sensationalism , where producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue . However , unlike most other media biases , false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias ; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly -- i.e. , in proportion to their actual merits and significance -- with treating them equally , giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information .

negative: Rampart scandal The LAPD Rampart scandal refers to widespread corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums ( CRASH ) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department 's Rampart Division in the late 1990s . More than 70 police officers either assigned to or associated with the Rampart CRASH unit were implicated in some form of misconduct , making it one of the most widespread cases of documented police corruption in United States history , responsible for a long list of offenses including unprovoked shootings , unprovoked beatings , planting of false evidence , stealing and dealing narcotics , bank robbery , perjury , and the covering up of evidence of these activities .   The Rampart investigation , based mainly on statements of CRASH officer Rafael Pérez , also known as Ray Lopez , an admitted corrupt policeman , initially implicated over 70 officers of wrongdoing . Of those officers , enough evidence was found to bring 58 before an internal administrative board . However , only 24 were actually found to have committed any wrongdoing , with 12 given suspensions of various lengths , 7 forced into resignation or retirement , and 5 terminated . As a result of the probe into falsified evidence and police perjury , 106 prior criminal convictions were overturned . The Rampart scandal resulted in more than 140 civil lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles , costing the city an estimated $ 125 million in settlements .   Partly as a result of the scandal , Mayor James K. Hahn did not rehire Police Chief Bernard Parks in 2001 . Both the scandal and the de facto firing of Parks are believed to have precipitated Hahn 's defeat by Antonio Villaraigosa in the 2005 mayoral election .   , the full extent of Rampart corruption is not known , and several rape , murder and robbery investigations involving Rampart officers remain unsolved .

negative: New York State Police Troop C scandal The New York State Police Troop C scandal involved the fabrication of evidence used to convict suspects in New York by the New York State Police .

negative: PMU 18 scandal The PMU 18 scandal is a multi-million dollar political corruption scandal that involved accusations of embezzlement , bribery , nepotism , and gambling at the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport ( Bộ Giao thông Vận tải , GTVT ) at the beginning of 2006 . The scandal received extensive press coverage in Vietnam , a rarity in the one-party state . It generated a great public outcry in Vietnam and controversy in other countries and at organizations that provided Official Development Assistance ( ODA ) to the country . Due to the scandal , Transport Minister Đào Đình Bình was forced to resign and his deputy was arrested . The scandal became a major issue leading up to the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam , when the government leadership was being reviewed .   In the aftermath of the scandal , the Vietnamese government clamped down on journalists reporting on the case . Two prominent journalists were tried and convicted of `` abusing democratic freedoms '' and propagating `` false information '' . Two police officers involved in the case were also convicted of `` disclosing work secrets '' .

negative: Recruit scandal The was an insider trading and corruption scandal that forced many prominent Japanese politicians to resign in 1988 .   Recruit is a human resources and classifieds company based in Tokyo . Its chairman , , offered a number of shares in a Recruit subsidiary , Cosmos , to business leaders and senior politicians shortly before Cosmos went public in 1986 . Following the public offering , Cosmos 's share price skyrocketed , and the individuals involved in the scheme saw average profits of ¥ 66 million each .   Although only seventeen members of the Diet were involved in the insider trading , another thirty were later found to have received special favors from Recruit .   Among the politicians involved in the scandal were Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita , former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone , and Chief Cabinet Secretary Takao Fujinami . In addition to members of the LDP government , leaders of the Komeito , Democratic Party of Japan , and Japan Socialist Party were also found to be involved . As a result , Takeshita 's cabinet was forced to resign , although some of its members returned to political prominence later ( including future prime ministers Kiichi Miyazawa and Keizō Obuchi ) .   The chairmen of NTT , the Yomiuri Shimbun , and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun were also involved in the scandal .   Despite the breadth of the Recruit Scandal across party lines , the LDP was hurt most significantly by the scandal . It is often said to be one of the main causes of Morihiro Hosokawa 's opposition party victory in 1993 , which briefly interrupted the LDP 's otherwise continuous reign over Japan .

negative: Norbourg scandal The Norbourg scandal is a major financial scandal that took place in 2005 . The scandal involved the Montreal , Quebec based Norbourg Financial Group , a trust-fund company founded by Vincent Lacroix . He diverted money from a Norbourg trust fund for personal interests . Nearly 9,200 investors in Quebec lost millions of dollars . It is considered as one of the largest Canadian financial scandals in history and largest in Quebec .

negative: Operación Puerto doping case Operación Puerto ( Operation Mountain Pass ) is the code name of a Spanish Police operation against the doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes , started in May 2006 , which resulted in a scandal that involved several of the world 's most famous cyclists at the time .   Media attention has focused on the small number of professional road cyclists named ; however , sportspeople from other disciplines including football and tennis have also been connected with the scandal . Fifteen had been acquitted by May 2007 , while three had admitted doping or evidence of blood doping was found .

negative: John Church (minister) John Church ( 1780 -- c. 1835 ) was an Independent minister who was most famous for his involvement in the homosexual scandal of the Vere Street Coterie . He is often claimed as the first openly gay ordained Christian minister in England . Contemporary rumours about this are unproveable one way or the other , though circumstantial evidence may suggest that his `` inordinate affections which led me into error '' can be equated with homosexual inclinations .

negative: Marcus Klingberg Avraham Marek Klingberg ( 7 October 1918 -- 30 November 2015 ) , known as Marcus A. Klingberg , was an Israeli scientist and the highest ranking Soviet spy ever caught in Israel . The case of Klingberg is regarded one of the most destructive spy scandals in the history of the State of Israel .

negative: Microsoft licensing corruption scandal The Microsoft licensing corruption scandal is an ongoing political scandal and criminal investigation in Romania , involving large bribes paid to Romanian government members in exchange for approving increases in license fees for Microsoft products .   Nine government ministers have been charged by the National Anticorruption Directorate , belonging to the Năstase , Tăriceanu and Boc Cabinets . The bribes were estimated at more than $ 50 million .   Apart from Microsoft , this scandal involved several major multinational corporations , including Fujitsu-Siemens , IBM , Compaq , Hewlett-Packard , S&T and local software companies like SIVECO and Softwin .

negative: Hugo Nutini Hugo G. Nutini ( 1929-2013 ) was an Italian-born Chilean and subsequently American professor of Anthropology . In 1965 he became involved in Project Camelot , an academic research project funded by the United States military through the Special Operations Research Office to train in counter-insurgency techniques .   Nutini made a personal visit to Chile and while there discussed Project Camelot with a number of social scientists . However , as Gabriel Gayamarti claimed , he doctored documentation as regards Project Camelot in a crude way in the hope of hiding the military involvement . His amateurish fraud as soon discovered . Also the Norwegian sociologist was in Chile . He had been given the original documents , which he circulated amongst the social scientists that Nutini had tried to dupe . This caused a scandal which led to Nutine being banned from entry to Chile as a `` politically undesirable individual '' .

negative: X-file scandal The X-file scandal is a South Korean political scandal of 2005 . The scandal revolves around the release of wiretapped conversations to the media . Many of the conversations were of conservative politicians in the Grand National Party arranging bribes during the South Korean presidential election of 1997 . The tapes were made illegally . The scandal has recently broadened to look at the general role of the National Intelligence Service ( NIS ) in political and personal affairs .   In July , 2005 , South Korean police raided the home of NIS intelligence operative Kong Un-young , retrieving 274 tapes . Kong attempted suicide , but was unsuccessful . Because of this evidence of NIS involvement , some Grand National Party leaders charge that the administration of Roh Moo-hyun must have been aware of the wiretaps . However , members of the pro-government Uri Party have charged that GNP leaders were also aware of them .

negative: Macropartisanship In the United States , macropartisanship is the shifts in political party affiliation with relation to presidential popularity and political events such as wars or scandals . There is strong evidence to prove that in the presidential popularity and party identification move together . For example , in the 1980s , there was strong support for Republican President Ronald Reagan . Although the number of Republicans did not actually increase , the voters simply responded to the political world . Another example of this occurred in the 1960s with the election of the popular Democratic President John F. Kennedy .   Macropartisanship shows that people respond to the political world when making up their party identification . Older and more politically sophisticated people are less likely to take current events into account because they are more set in their ways . Normally , those affected by outside influences tend to be young , and/or weakly affiliated identifiers .   Macropartisanship is one of several attempts made by political scientists in recent years to explain the disconnect between individuals who seem to be relatively uninformed on political matters and public opinion , which seems to respond rationally to political figures and events .   The term macropartisanship was first used by American political scientists Michael MacKuen , Robert Erikson and James Stimson in 1989 to describe the overall balance between the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States .   In the work of MacKuen and his colleagues , as well as in the later work drawing on the concept , macropartisanship theory begins with the notion that short-term shifts in the party balance are systematic , rather than random ( as in the `` non-attitudes '' explanation put forward by Converse in `` The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics , '' 1964 ) . These shifts can be the result of presidential popularity , subjective views of the economy , or political events such as wars or scandals , and are measured through the series of party identification questions used on a variety of surveys .   While this work has been widely cited , it has not been non-controversial . The most serious criticisms of this findings come from a measurement theory perspective , and argue that much of the variation in party identification is due to measurement error , rather than any real change .

negative: Documentary evidence Documentary evidence is any evidence introduced at a trial in the form of documents . Although this term is most widely understood to mean writings on paper ( such as an invoice , a contract or a will ) , the term includes any media by which information can be preserved . Photographs , tape recordings , films , and printed emails are all forms of documentary evidence .

negative: Black Mist Scandal Black Mist Scandal ( 黒い霧事件 , kuroi kiri jiken ) may refer to :   Black Mist Scandal , a political scandal involving Eisaku Satō  The Black Mist Scandal ( Japanese baseball ) , a game-fixing scandal

negative: Richard M. Karp Richard Manning Karp ( born January 3 , 1935 ) is an American computer scientist and computational theorist at the University of California , Berkeley . He is most notable for his research in the theory of algorithms , for which he received a Turing Award in 1985 , The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science in 2004 , and the Kyoto Prize in 2008 .

negative: Wedtech scandal The Wedtech Scandal was the name of an American political scandal in the Reagan administration involving the award of government contracts . It was first brought to light in 1986 .

negative: 2015 Italian football scandal The 2015 Italian football scandal , or known as its code name Dirty Soccer , was a scandal that involved rigged matches in 2014 -- 15 season .

negative: Sachsensumpf Sachsensumpf ( German , literally Saxon swamp ) is the name given by journalists to a child prostitution scandal which took place in the vicinity of Leipzig , Germany from 1992 to 2014 . A number of prominent local figures , including legal and political officials , were implicated in the scandal . The case remains controversial due to questions concerning the legality of evidence collection methods used by the Organized Crime Department ( OK ) of the Saxony State Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Sachsen - LfV ) , and charges of libel made against journalists covering the case .

negative: Sharpstown scandal The Sharpstown scandal was a stock fraud scandal in the state of Texas in 1971 and 1972 involving the highest levels of the state government . The name came from the involvement of the Sharpstown area of Houston .