Are all these scientists and their supporting studies simply wrong?
Conceivable, but highly improbable. In fact, the "conceivability" that the consensus view might be wrong is essential to the likelihood that it is true. Scientists call this "the falsifiability criterion." An explanation is in order.
We can imagine a world in which evolution is false. In such a world, there would be no fossil record, no DNA similarity among the species, no random mutations, etc. But that would not be the world that we live in. Evidence in this "real world" confirms the truth of evolution.
We can imagine a universe in which Einstein's relativity theory is false. In such a world, light from a distant star would not "bend" in an eclipse in a manner precisely predicted by Einstein's theory. Nor would particle accelerators behave as they do, etc. But scientific experimentation proves that we live in Einstein's universe, not another that is conceivably different.
In brief: assertions of fact, if they are to be scientifically valid, must in principle be capable of describing what it would be like for such assertions to be false.
Thus the consensus conclusion of 98% of active climate scientists is that the world we inhabit is undergoing significant man-made climate change. Moreover, it is easy to image a world in which this is not happening. In such a world, the Arctic ice cap and the terrestrial glaciers would not be decreasing, the acidity and temperature of the oceans would not be increasing, the CO2 content of the atmosphere would be steady. Sadly, that is not the world that is measured, confirmed and reported by the climate scientists.
The climate change deniers would have us believe that despite all the accumulated evidence by those thousands of scientists, the conclusion therefrom that the global climate is changing is false. On the contrary, they tell us, the world in which we live has a steady-state climate, or if not, then climate change is "natural," occasional, and of no great concern.
If so, then where is the evidence? And where is the argument that the data from these field and laboratory experiments do not in fact support the consensus view?
There are none that survive scrupulous, peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny. Instead, we get citations of the rare and insignificant errors in the mountain of confirming data. We get out-of-context reports, such as "proof" of global cooling taken from arbitrary data points in a temperature graph that, in full context, unquestionably displays an upward trend line. In fact, the very flimsiness of the refuting arguments serve, in the minds of the informed and critical observer, to significantly weaken the denialists' assertions. "If that's the best that the deniers can come up with, they don't have a case." Unfortunately, this is not the response of the typical FOX News viewer, or of virtually all GOP members of Congress.
And what of that dissenting 2% of climate scientists? I have not seen a breakdown of that statistic, but I would guess that a large majority are "skeptics" rather than "deniers." They have seen the evidence, might find it compelling, but "are not yet convinced." That would leave less than one percent who are "deniers," and that, in science, constitutes "proof beyond reasonable doubt."
Could the consensus be right -- is anthropogenic climate change a reality?
This, by process of elimination, must be the only plausible explanation of the world-wide scientific consensus.
And yet, as scientists, they are open to the possibility that they are wrong. Scientific integrity demands this openness: its called "the falsifiability rule." All that is required is scientifically compelling contrary evidence and inference.
So far: nothing.
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