Editor's Note: This article was completed as an assignment for a class in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

The noise of talking in the crowded classroom gradually subsided as Lou Wojcinski, K-State assistant teaching scholar of chemistry, displayed the following question through the class projection system:

"Do you think most scientists agree with one another about whether or not global warming is happening, or do you think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists on the issue?"

Wojcinski then instructed the students to answer the question with their I-clickers; 70 percent of the class responded that there is significant disagreement among scientists, whereas only 30 percent said that the issue is settled.

As the political global warming debate surges, this poll raises the question of whether or not scientists agree on the issue.

Wojcinski said roughly 90 percent of scientists agree that global warming is occurring.

"Projections about the future are much harder to do; I would say there is less agreement there," Wojcinski said.

Wojcinski said there are a variety of factors that contribute to global warming.

"There is a human contribution to increased temperatures," he said. "I think it is important to say that it is not just a human contribution. There are natural contributions to the temperatures that we have, and I think that what some people think when they hear that it's a human-caused problem they think it's just a human-caused problem, which sounds a little silly. I think part of the hesitancy in accepting the science comes from people interpreting it as solely a human problem."

Besides disagreeing about what scientists think, students at K-State also have differing views about what global warming is and its implications for the future.

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