Rising sea levels threaten vast coastal, delta and low river agricultural zones, the habitat and granary for many hundreds of millions people in southeast and southern Asia, northwestern Europe and northeast America, with social and economic consequences which defy contemplation. Not least, ocean acidification and the decline of marine fauna, coral reefs and fisheries, threaten the demise of Earth’s marine environments and a major food source for humanity.
In so far as the scientific method depends on examination of evidence from a range of perspectives, those who describe themselves as climate change skeptics, failing to conduct research, appear to act as advocates of an assumption inconsistent with direct measurements and basic principles of climate science. Given only minor oscillations in solar radiation and cosmic ray activity from the last quarter of the 20th century, the climate change denial syndrome fails to demonstrate a natural cause for global warming, the highest since the Emian (124,000 years-ago), at CO2 and temperature rise rates one to two orders of magnitude faster than the last glacial termination and currently tracking toward conditions analogous to the mid-Pliocene (~3 million years-ago).
It would prove a huge relief, to say the least, had the specter of dangerous climate impasse been shown to be false or, at least, a purely natural process to which civilization needs to mitigate and adapt. Thus Hamilton (2008) states:“The truth is that if any of the skeptics - especially those who do have some claim to expertise in the area - were to undertake a study that cast genuine doubt on the global warming hypothesis and it could pass the tests of professional scrutiny, it would cause a sensation. If it were confirmed, we could all utter an enormous sigh of relief and shower those responsible with prizes and accolades.”Unfortunately this is not the case. If and when climate change denialists are prepared to visit parts of the Earth severely affected by global warming, as well as read the voluminous peer reviewed literature in science journals, perhaps they will realize the gravity of the consequences of their misreading of climate science, before it is too late (Stipp, 2004).
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