Reread my prior post. That post was not from an environmental lobby. It was an article on scientific work done by scientists to measure the global warming and cooling macro trends over the last 800,000 years. In addition, they measure how fast warming and cooling occurred. They have found that in the last 17 years, warming has increased at a faster pace than ANY TIME IN THE LAST 800,000 YEARS. And they have found that CO2 levels are higher than they have every been in the last 800,000 years.
Forget about the politicians. Doesn't that worry you? Use your brain. What's different about now versus every other warming period in the last 800,000 years?
I'll give you a hint. This is NOT rocket science. Common sense can tell you a lot.
As to your assertion that scientists don't know what comes first, CO2 or warming, that is plain hogwash. All serious scientists will tell you that CO2 causes warming. However, in past warming and cooling cycles, the normal ecosystems of the earth (green C02 consuming plants and marine CO2 absorbing and consuming life) have been able to absorb excess CO2, leading to a cooling. These warming and cooling trends have occurred in clearly defined cycles and have upper and lower statistical limits.
The trend in the last 17 years has exceeded the upper statistical limit established from 800,000 years of data. For you laymen out there, what that means is this. Upper statistical limits are established as follows. You take the average CO2 level for the 800,000 years of data. Then you add 3 times the sigma to it to get your upper limit. What that means is that there is a 99% probability that all data points will be lower than the upper limit. If a data point exceeds that upper limit, it is considered an outlier, or a very low probability event that could be due to any kind of anomaly. However, when successive data points all exceed that upper limit, then that tells you that something systemic and most likely permanent has changed. That is what has happened in the last 17 years.
This isn't hocus pocus. It's science. What amazes me is that so many, otherwise intelligent, people can be flatly denying what the majority of scientists around the world are saying. And it's not just American liberal scientists saying it. Renowned scientists from all over the world have come to consensus through time honored traditions of scientific publication of results of experiments, duplication of experiments, and critique. The conclusions are irrefutable, except by people who want to deny the truth. |
