Article Tags: World Temperatures
Global warming is currently one of the most contentious issues. Everyone recognizes there have been changes in global climate. The big question is whether the changes have been caused exclusively or to a large degree by man. Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth documents his belief that humans are the cause of this warming and of an impending catastrophe on the planet. Therefore, many experts call for reducing emissions of such of greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide. They claim global warming is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That is why they talk about a “carbon footprint” that should be kept as small as possible. Dissenting experts claim that global warming is cyclical as evidenced by the several historical ice ages and periods of warming. These periods have not been of equal duration or severity, of course. The dissenters also point out that the increase in carbon dioxide has always followed periods of warming rather than causing the warming.
It must be kept in mind that since it is not possible to do scientific experiments and testing with making certain types of climates, the climate modelers have to rely on theories instead. The closest the meteorologists have come to a laboratory is to record temperature readings for a relatively few decades, which then have been used to predict temperatures and climate for a hundred years into the future. The common sense question is: How well have the meteorologists predicted the weather a week into the future? What about one year into the future? A decade? One hundred years?
Source: newtimesslo.com