Scientists are as certain that global warming is real as they are that cigarettes kill
"Uncertainty," as a scientific concept, can be baffling to the layman. But the climate researchers gathering this week in Stockholm to finalize U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report are likely to assert that they're "surer than ever" that global warming is real, and that it's caused by human activity.
The number they place on that near-certainty -- 95 percent -- may not sound as high as it actually is. To help put it into context, the AP asked scientists what else they're 95 percent about. Here's how it breaks down:
Things scientists are more certain about than climate change:
- Whether the sun will rise in the morning
Things scientists are equally certain about:
- The deadliness of cigarettes