What happened to global warming?
By Paul Hudson. Climate correspondent, BBC News
(Page last updated at 15:22 GMT, Friday, 9 October 2009 16:22 UK)
"This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.
But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.
And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise. ...
One thing is for sure. It seems the debate about what is causing global warming is far from over. Indeed some would say it is hotting up."
More precisely, the debate about whether there even is any such thing as "global warming" (or more accurately "anthropogenic climate change") is far from over.
Read the entire article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm. Think for yourself. Our brains are still the most powerful computers on the planet. All the computer models, theories, and hypotheses are merely tools to help us think, not think for us. Be aware of your biases too, we all have them. Almost everyone believes that humans should (even must) be good stewards of the planet and its environment -- Regretably this can make almost everyone suceptible to manipulation in the name of doing good for the earth and its inhabitants. Moreover, since this is a political debate as well as a scientific one, it may be revealing to follow the money. And keep in mind that power, influence, and money are fairly fungible these days when it comes to political and business decisions; and sadly, scientific ones too (e.g., see http://chronicle.com/article/Medical-Journals-See-Cost-in/48393/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en, http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/346/24/1901).
