BBC: Are we changing planet Earth?

[simonpro]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. In the scientific community there is no major disagreement over the warming of this planet. Every single climate scientist I have ever met (even Svensmark and the others) agrees that this planet is warming.
What they disagree on is how much of that warming process is caused by humans and how much can be attributed to other things (such as increased solar activity).

 

[GregBurch]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. In the scientific community there is no major disagreement over the warming of this planet. Every single climate scientist I have ever met (even Svensmark and the others) agrees that this planet is warming.
What they disagree on is how much of that warming process is caused by humans and how much can be attributed to other things (such as increased solar activity).

FWIW -- which isn't very much -- I'll say again that I'm sure that planetary warming is occurring.

The only reason I got interested in the critique of the original Mann work was 1) to the extent that it was being taken as the state of the art in predicting further warming, then it becomes extremely important and 2) to the extent that it was being used as proof of AGW, it is also very interesting.

Again, FWIW (and again, that isn't much), I'm a strong proponent of developing non-fossil-fuel energy, so the "cause" issue isn't a moral problem for me. What does become a moral and political problem are some of the prescriptions being offered as "the only road to survival."

But I have so little hope that people will be reasonable about these things that it all seems rather pointless.

 

[simonpro]

Agreed. I think the whole issue has been snatched by the media (and some climate alarmists, I'm looking at you guys, Greenpeace) and blown waaaay out of proportion. There's much more pressing issues for the world than global warming.

That's not to say we shouldn't try and minimise the effect we have on our climate, but we shouldn't be completely blinkered by this one goal either.