“A near-universal scientific consensus has indicated that anthropogenic sources—fossil fuel consumption, industrial production, intensive agriculture, automated transportation, and other human interactions with the natural environment—are key to an accelerating climate crisis.” Elbeyi, Jensen et al (2025) Information Integrity about Climate Science: A Systematic Review

[In this report, accuracy refers to] “the correspondence of the publicly available information with the current consensus of climate science.” Elbeyi, Jensen et al (2025) Information Integrity about Climate Science: A Systematic Review

“We have about five years to cut emissions in half and until 2050 to go carbon neutral. Without the right information, we’re not going to get there. So the climate crisis being translated into a climate catastrophe is possible, unless we handle the climate information integrity problem.” - Klaus Jensen, co-author of Information Integrity about Climate Science: A Systematic Review, quoted in June 19, 2025 issue of The Guardian.

“Our findings suggest that reductions in agricultural GHG emissions, alongside sustainable agricultural intensification and climate‐smart agricultural practices, can be achieved through parallel efforts emphasizing accelerated forest conservation.” Li et al (2025) Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Agriculture: Pathways to Sustainable Reductions

I included the last excerpt to document that intensive agriculture is by no means part of the scientific consensus on climate change. In fact, the sole reference provided Elbeyi, Jensen et al in their brief summary of the scientific consensus made no mention of intensive agriculture.*

More to the point of this post, what is the current scientific consensus on climate change? I’m not going to depend on the version provided by Elbeyi, Jensen et al, as they seem rather biased. However, NASA has compiled over a dozen consensus statements, which are remarkably similar to each other. Here are a few of them:

American Geophysical Union

"Based on extensive scientific evidence, it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. There is no alternative explanation supported by convincing evidence." (2019)

American Meteorological Society

"Research has found a human influence on the climate of the past several decades ... The IPCC [indicates] that it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-twentieth century." (2019)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

It is unequivocal that the increase of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere…Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact.” (IPCC Assessment Reports, 2014-2022)

In other words, the scientific consensus addresses what is happening (climate change) and it’s primary driver (human activity).** There is no consensus about how fast, how bad, local impacts, or what needs to be done and when. Claims to the contrary are false. Let the debate continue.

* That was the Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_FullVolume.pdf

** My statement refers only to what the scientific consensus is about and not whether it’s a useful concept, or even if it’s a true consensus -whatever that is.

References:

International Panel on the Information Environment [E. Elbeyi, K. Bruhn Jensen, et al (eds.)], “Information Integrity about Climate Science: A Systematic Review,” Zurich, Switzerland: IPIE, 2025. Synthesis Report, SR2025.1, doi: 10.61452/BTZP3426.

Li L et al Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Agriculture: Pathways to Sustainable Reductions. Glob Chang Biol. 2025 Jan;31(1):e70015. doi: 10.1111/gcb.70015

Scientific Consensus/NASA https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/scientific-consensus/ (accessed 7/7/2025).