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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Land Shark who wrote (11391)	4/11/2007 4:15:56 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 36917

there are still some prominent scientists who feel that the threat of global warming has been greatly exaggerated. Skeptics take issue with the basic temperature data that demonstrate the Earth’s temperature has increased over the last century. Most of the pre-satellite, pre-1970 data were collected in urban areas using many types of thermometers that were spread far apart. Such measurements are subject to human error and do not give a clear depiction of ocean temperatures. Until satellite data are collected for several more decades, some researchers feel that the temperature data remain too unreliable to take at face value. Another point of contention is that no one has ever proven outside of the laboratory whether global warming occurs as a result of carbon dioxide. Scientists have ample fossil evidence that shows that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen as the Earth grows warmer, but no one has yet shown that a rise in carbon is responsible for the past temperature increases. It is still possible that the warming in the distant past could have triggered the rise in carbon dioxide. As far as forecasts of future warming are concerned, skeptics point to the uncertainties inherent in the models researchers are using. There are a couple of dozen models currently in use that forecast everything from the average surface warming of the planet to complex interactions global warming will have with the Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems. As mentioned, each of these models can generate a different answer depending on projections for future human emissions, the uncertainty in how the climate will respond, and what scientists decide to include in the models. Many feel there is still too much we do not understand about the climate or human society to take stock in any forecasts as of yet.