mlb Wrote:

Quote:And make no mistake about it, there is not just a small chance that it is human caused. The evidence is overwhelming. There is no controversy in the scientific community any more than there is on evolution (also technically a "theory"). The scientific community is nigh universally in agreement, because the climate and C02 data is so clear in support of the greenhouse gas hypothesis. The only people asserting that an anthropogenic cause is a myth are people who have not studied the data, and are trying to promote the idea of a controversy so that no action will be taken.

Then why is there such a large percentage of scientists who don't believe this still? How about the meteorologists who don't believe humans could cause something of this magnitude?!?

Some people believe it is due to a slight variation in the earth's orbit around the sun. Others, as GTS stated, believe it is due to the increased solar activity over the past decade. Some believe that due to the slashing and burning of large areas of rain forest in South America the amount of CO2 taken out of the atmosphere has dropped. Some believe it is just natural variation, and after the "little ice age" of the 1600's we were due to warm up. Others believe it is due to there being less cloud cover over the past decade (no major volcanic eruptions, thus no large cloud that decreases the temperature of the planet like in the past). Some believe it is a combination of some or all of the above mentioned things...

IMO there is no general concensus of what is causing the warming. The global warming theory has gotten the most media hype. Why? Just my opinion, but I believe it is due to the fact that it is a great "fear" story. The media loves stories that can predict doom, because they get high ratings. "The storm of the century", "Blizzard 2007", etc. etc. How come none of the other theories get any air time on ABC, CBS, Fox, or NBC? Because they are too busy talking about sexual preditors and things of that nature.

Read the IPCC report just released. Lots of good data that should answer most of your doubts. Thousands of scientists from around the world ascribed a 90% confidence interval to their findings that fossil fuels and land-use changes are causing global warming. You can probably count on one hand the number of climatologists (meteorologists study weather developments, not climate -- BIG difference) that disagree -- its as close to a consensus as you can get in Science, and easily enough of a consensus to justify action, when you consider the magnitude of the impact talked about.