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Liberals love to pretend the debate over global warming has been settled. To them, either you get behind every idea they have to save the planet from certain doom, or you’re a “denier” who doesn’t believe in science.

Of course, there are many people who believe in global warming; they just don’t see the need to panic yet. Some even think action needs to be taken, but believe any action should be given a thorough cost/benefit analysis to weigh its damage to our economy.

This sort of reasonable debate isn’t enough for liberals. Often, any argument against an environmental regulation is met with the retort, “the science is settled, 97% of scientists agree.”

However, a new survey of scientists is calling liberal claims of a climate “consensus” into question. From Forbes:

Don’t look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.

The survey results show geoscientists (also known as earth scientists) and engineers hold similar views as meteorologists. Two recent surveys of meteorologists revealed similar skepticism of alarmist global warming claims.

You could say this is an inconvenient truth for liberals. It calls their entire narrative into question. The left’s favorite tactic is to silence dissent so they can get their way, but if more scientists start poking holes in the argument, that strategy won’t work anymore.

The irony is that this wouldn’t be the first time liberals are on the wrong side of environmental issues. Environmental extremists love to block oil pipelines like Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline, even though pipelines are better for the environment. If the oil isn’t pumped through a safe pipeline, it will just be loaded on trucks and trains… burning fossil fuels. Moreover, these methods are even more likely to result in spills that damage the environment.

Of course, the truth has always been that the science is far from settled. Scientists have widely different views on whether or not climate change is happening, how severe it is, and what (if anything) should be done to combat it. This survey is just more evidence of how far scientists really are from marching in lock step on the issue.

Reasonable minds can have a debate about how bad climate change really is, and what our lawmakers should or should not do to mitigate the damage. The liberal climate alarmists just don’t fit into the reasonable minds category.

[Note: This post was authored by Michael Lee. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee]