Global Warming

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   For John, Vulcan, and the other "fart in a huricane" fans... 

 Also effective was carbon dioxide (CO2), although in the atmosphere the gas is only a few parts in ten thousand. Just as a sheet of paper will block more light than an entire pool of clear water, so the trace of CO2 altered the balance of heat radiation through the entire atmosphere.

The discovery of global warming in the 19th century. well worth a read...

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm

Well before any of Vulcan's climate change conspiracy theories.

And if you bother to read it, you will learn how scientist's were sceptical themselves, as they always are, it's part of the scientific method, it was nothing like forming a huge conspiracy. However... as more data was amassed, the final nail in the coffin of scientific scepticism came in 2005.

Science was skeptical way before you were, and moved on.

There was only one remotely plausible source of the colossal addition of energy: the Earth must be taking in more energy from sunlight than it was radiating back into space. Simple physics calculated that to heat all that sea water required nearly an extra watt per square meter, averaged over the planet's entire surface, year after year. The number was just what the elaborate greenhouse effect computations had been predicting for decades.

Moreover, in each separate ocean basin there was a close match between the pattern of rising temperatures measured at each location and depth and detailed model calculations of where the greenhouse effect warming should appear. Warming from other sources, for example a change in the Sun's output, could not produce these patterns. Evidently the modelers were on the right track

 International panels of experts reviewed the evidence, and were checked by the major national science academies, scientific societies, government science agencies and other bodies representative of scientific expertise. All these bodies agreed that the world faced a serious problem. All, that is, except a few panels composed primarily of people with limited if any expertise in climate science, representing ideological and business interests who opposed government regulation.

 The greenhouse effect will in fact operate even if the absorption of radiation were totally saturated in the lower atmosphere. The planet's temperature is regulated by the thin upper layers where radiation does escape easily into space. Adding more greenhouse gas there will change the balance. Moreover, even a 1% change in that delicate balance would make a serious difference in the planet’s surface temperature. The logic is rather simple once it is grasped, but it takes a new way of looking at the atmosphere — not as a single slab, like the gas in Koch's tube (or the glass over a greenhouse), but as a set of interacting layers. (The full explanation is in the essay on Simple Models, use link at right.)

 Ever since the late 1950s, an increasing number of experts had been saying that effects on climate would become clearly visible around the year 2000. They were right. As the 21st century began, not only was the global temperature soaring in a way never seen before, but field evidence showed that the expected feedbacks were kicking in. The world's plants were taking up more CO2, but many ecosystems were under stress and their capacity to absorb was waning.

Scientists aren't morons! You are seeing exactly what they predicted way back in the 1950's.

And to be honest lads, especially Vulcan,  to gabble on about short-term cold spells in Northern Europe, Russia, and the UK etc, when no less than nine different countries have reported record highs this year, and global temperatures for the whole of 2010 are set to be another record breaker is utterly ludicrous. 

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/9-countries-record-hottest-ever-temps.php

This year, we have seen four consecutive months were global temperatures were record highs. We've also seen global ocean temperatures the warmest on record. Kind of puts a chilly few weeks into persecutive doesn't it.   

Finally...

The debate on the authenticity of GW and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes. It's the people who haven't a clue, don't understand, or can't understand the basics, who spout the ignorant nonsense. 

The opinions of 3,146 scientists from many different fields, were recently surveyed. 97% had no doubt at all.