Climate scientists agree that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last few decades. Within this general agreement, a small number of scientists disagree with the conclusions drawn by the mainstream scientific community that most of this warming is attributable to human activities. The consensus position of the climate science community has been summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as follows: #The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 °C since the late 19th century, and 0.17 °C per decade in the last 30 years. #"There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities", in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. #If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue, with temperatures increasing by 1.4 °C to 5.8 °C between 1990 and 2100. Accompanying this temperat More »