| Summary: | A questionnaire on climate change has been designed to obtain an actual overview on the opinion of an international sample of experts on that matter. A total of 100 responses have been evaluated, roughly a third came from Austrian, two thirds from other colleagues around the world. Although this way of testing our knowledge about a rather vital and popular field of science may not be absolutely balanced, it is nevertheless a way of checking the experts confidence on scientific results. Furthermore a possible difference between the opinion of the general public and the experts may give a hint to a biased information policy. Natural scientists are trained to be reserved and careful with statements as long as uncertainties may not be excluded. The public in contrast calls for quick and clear answers to problems which may severely affect our future. If some of the experts are willing to give such answers - without pointing out the uncertainties - the public opinion may be influenced quite dramatically. The evaluation of the questionnaire shows a rather reserved opinion of the experts what concerns the detection of an actual signal of an anthropogenic global warming and its possible consequences. Interestingly there is partly a different rating between the Austrian and the international responses which may be explained by a consideration of different data sources. On the other hand a majority believes in significant oncoming changes in the future, the spectrum however is still extremely wide. From that we can conclude that the scientific problem is still far from being solved. Scientists have to find better ways how to deal with uncertainties and possible scenarios for the oncoming climate change, when the public and political bodies call for assistance in their decisions. The results of our inquiry should help to think over our own opinions and may be helpful in discussions whenever arguments like "the majority of the scientific community is sure that..." are used.
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