Is there enough proof of global warming to warrant drastic change?

[CARLHAYDEN]

There are two issues here:

First, is there a significant real long term increase in global tempratures (the evidence is at this time inconclusive, but this is probably not the case)

Second, if there is such an increase, how much of it is non-man made (i.e. solar activity, etc.)   

[CARLHAYDEN]

I've spent so much time spelling out my views on this issue and everybody yawns and ignores me.

1)  The warming trend in global temperatures is inflated by land use changes and urban growth around the surface recording stations used to record temperatures.

2)  There are vast portions of the globe that are not covered by surface reports.

3)  A large chunk of the world's coldest areas has not been recorded since the demise of the USSR as the Russian government closed a large proportion of rural stations which had less "urban heat island" effect in order to save money, which drastically increased the weight of stations that have experienced such an effect.

4)  Satellite temperature measurements, which date back to only 1979, have not shown nearly the warming trend at any height in the atmosphere as the surface measurements taken by weather stations/weather buoys.

5)  The discrepancy between satellite measurements, which measure the entire atmosphere at a given altitude, and the surface stations has been growing at an increasing rate with the surface stations looking warmer and warmer.  It is no surprise that organizations that are pushing drastic changes in regards to climate change are using the incomplete, but longer time scale set of data from the surface stations.

6)  While scientists have ruled out many factors contributing to the current warming cycle, they are finding new factors every day that have wide reaching impacts.

7)  The models are crap.  They don't take into account ocean oscillations that distribute heat across the planet on multi-year to decades-long scales.  This "unprecedented" warming since 1975 also occurred during a time of unprecedented solar intensity and ocean cycles that were in their "warm" phases.  The last time period in which there was intense solar energy and warm ocean phases was from 1930-1945... a time period in which scientists were quite worried about shrinking glaciers and the shrinking polar ice cap and increased temperature.  I'll see if I can find some links to the paper published in the '30s lamenting a hotter future world.

The next 30 years will likely see a declining temperature as solar intensity has slowed dramatically in the past 2 years and is expected to remain low for the next 30 years.  This has also coincided with a switch to the cool cycle of the Pacific ocean.

Greenhouse warming, while a component of climate change, is smaller than Al Gore would have you think, and I think there are other more pressing reasons to make drastic changes to our lifestyles.

Actually, that was an informative and thoughtful post!

[CARLHAYDEN]

PiT,

First, thanks for the honesty.

Second, from my experience, most alledged believers in 'global warming' are merely using that as a pretext for larger and more intrusive government, with less freedom.

Third, if you take a look at developments over the past couple of generations in the United States, you will see remarkable progress on water pollution (which is far more critical than air pollution).

[CARLHAYDEN]

PiT,

Another thing that bugs me about the 'global warming' nuts is their grabbing at a handful of dubious numbers and coming to unfounded conclusions.

If anyone bothered to study the history of the earth (geoscienes) they would find that there have been a large number of significant warming and cooling periods.

Indeed, some major Russian scientists have suggested that the earth will be entering a cooling cycle in this century.