As recently as last year, only 42 percent of Americans believed “most scientists think global warming is happening,” according to a report. As many as 33 percent said “there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening.”

Consensus among the scientific community, however, could not be more different: Of about 4,000 papers published between 1991 and 2011, 97 percent took the position that global warming was caused by humans, according to a report by the Guardian.

“Even among members of the broader public who already know about the evidence for climate change and what is causing it, some do not know the degree to which many climate scientists are concerned about the risks of possibly rapid and abrupt climate change,” McCarthy said. “That’s something we are dedicated to discussing with multiple audiences, from business leaders and financial experts to decision makers in all walks of life.”

The challenge AAAS faces is significant. A recent Gallup poll found that Americans ranked climate change second-to-last in a list of 15 national problems, one spot ahead of race relations. While 59 percent said they worried a “great deal” about the economy, just 24 percent said they felt the same about climate change.

AAAS hopes its new initiative might change that view. On Tuesday, it unveiled a report titled simply, “What We Know,” which summarized current climate findings and gave a rundown of potential consequences. A key goal, the organization says, is to begin preparing for climate change now – and to do so in concrete, economic and risk-management terms.

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