The facts and impacts of global warming

Monte Heil (Daily Bee, Aug. 5) asks in a letter how can science be a reliable source of information if it doesn't claim to prove anything. It can be trusted as a reliable source because it has an excellent track record of providing accurate information. Science is the best system for promoting invention and discovery ever devised. It is responsible for major advances in virtually every aspect of our lives. It can be trusted because it is a phenomenally successful enterprise.

However, science does not claim to have absolute proof for any of its findings. It tests its theories against the evidence. If scientific theories make accurate predictions that agree with the evidence, the theories are considered to be provisional explanations. But they are never considered to be absolutely proven. There is always the chance, however slim, that new evidence could falsify them. (Search “Forget what you’ve read, science can’t prove anything”)

Science deals with probabilities, not proofs. When a large body of evidence has been collected that supports a theory, and no verifiable evidence has been found to refute it, there's a good probability the theory is correct. The more confirmatory evidence, the greater the probability. The 97%-plus consensus among climate scientists that anthropogenic warming is real reflects the very high probability that the underlying theory is correct.

Whether a person considers the impacts of global warming to be a crisis depends on how sensitive they are to the suffering of those who are impacted. (“The Climate Crisis and Health: Key Facts 2024”)

JACK DeBAUN

Dover