Final answer:
One approach for assessing the percentage of the scientific community that agrees global warming is happening is to refer to the official positions of worldwide scientific organizations, such as the IPCC, NASA, and NOAA. These organizations provide a synthesis of the extensive peer-reviewed research that supports the consensus on anthropogenic climate change.
Step-by-step explanation:
To assess what percentage of the scientific community agrees that global warming is happening, one could consider the a) Official position of worldwide scientific organizations. These organizations synthesize vast amounts of peer-reviewed research and represent a global consensus on scientific issues. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprises hundreds of leading scientists worldwide, regularly reviewing thousands of studies. The IPCC, along with agencies like NASA and NOAA, confirm that global warming is real and predominantly driven by human activities. Their conclusions are shared by the national academies of science in major industrialized nations. In contrast, b) Television debates and c) Reading online opinion statements do not provide a representative or accurate measure of the scientific consensus.
Countless peer-reviewed articles support the fact that the Earth's climate is changing largely due to human-induced factors. Out of roughly 14,000 peer-reviewed climate articles from 1991 to 2012, only 24 reject the concept of global warming. It’s widely accepted within the scientific community that climate change poses a significant threat to natural and human systems, and the few dissenting public statements can often be traced to a small number of organizations with vested interests.