Abstract: Use of Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods in Climate Debates (2010 AAAS Annual Meeting (18-22 February 2010))

New scientific findings are found to be more than twenty times as likely to indicate that global climate disruption is "worse than previously expected," rather than "not as bad as previously expected," strongly supporting the ASC perspective rather than the usual framing of the issue in the U.S. mass media.
The findings add further support to the growing realization that media coverage of supposed debates has been strongly skewed by a tactic so widespread that it has its own name -- "Scientific Certainty" Argumentation Methods, or SCAMS. Partly because most citizens expect science to produce black-and-white certainty, rather than cumulative or "normal" improvements in understanding, well-funded special interest groups can exploit mass-media desire for controversy in stories, creating a false impression that "scientists" are still debating consensus findings.