As a meteorologist, I am a member of the American Meteorological Society, the primary professional society for meteorologists (and other atmospheric scientists, including climatologists) in the country. So are many other meteorologists, including those who work for the National Weather Service, private forecasting firms, and television broadcasters.
This week the AMS released the results of a new survey of all members on their understanding of climate change. Based on the survey results, it is clear that the vast majority of AMS members agree that the climate is changing, and 67% say climate change over the last 50 years is mostly to entirely caused by human activity. More than 4 in 5 respondents attributed at least some of the climate change to human activity. The survey did not break down the statistics into how different types of meteorologists perceive climate change, but in the past broadcast meteorologists have been considerably more skeptical of climate change than other meteorologists, including most climatologists, although this is changing.
You can read the original survey report here and a Forbes.com column discussing the survey results by Marshall Shepherd of UGA here. One of the most sobering results of the survey is that only 18% of scientists believe that most of the projected changes in climate can be averted by concerted action by the world. This means that farmers as well as the rest of the world will have to deal with changes in climate in the future that result in conditions significantly different than we have now. Farmers already deal with year-to-year variations in climate (along with market variability, among other factors) and do well at adapting to these variations, but the large changes that are projected are likely to make it much harder than now to use management techniques, new hybrids, smart irrigation, and other methods to deal with the changes.
