On 18/10/2012 21:47, John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Steve Jackson writes:
Trembling at the thought of setting anthropogenic global warmers
up against the ever growing band of sceptics,

Ever growing? I would be surprised by that, as it seems to me - as a
reluctant convert to AGW some ten years ago - that the evidence is
becoming more compelling all the time.

By ever growing he means the amount of money fossil fuel and right wing
think tanks are spending on PR mouthpieces to fool the public.

The Daily Wail seems to be in on it as well.

I offer you this article on historical warm periods from the past. It
is worth a read, and I will offer it to my students without comment,
just to maintain a balanced view as ever!

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/1...another-paper-
demonstrates-warmer-temperatures-1000-years-ago-and-even-
2000-years-ago/

Steve J

I think the point is that, if you accept that increased and still
increasing CO2 is the main cause of the current warming, then it will
almost certainly go on indefinitely into the future, and probably at an
accelerating pace. In 50 years time it will have far outstripped 1000
(and 2000) years ago, even if it has not yet quite done so.

Fortunately the damage is roughly speaking linear in temperature for
each doubling of the CO2 concentration. Future generations will curse us
for not doing something sooner - though at present I only favour no
regrets energy saving measures because the worst polluters on the planet
are determined to cheat so there really isn't any point in making cuts
that might hurt.

Steve J might also like to introduce his students to the primary
scientific literature on ADS abstracts where they can find actual papers
written by scientists showing that AGW is real (including ones who make
guest appearences at right wing shindigs pretending that nothing is
happening and it is all natural). Hint: you cannot balance the Earth's
energy budget after ~1970 without including GHG forcing.

Try for example
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996ApJ...472..891S

Baliunas is a well known favourite of the ultra right wing trash the
planet for fun and profit brigade.

They should be encouraged to go and read the original paper in a
university library. Watts up with that is not exactly even handed in its
treatment of the subject and will introduce denier bias. Although he is
by no means as bad as that Australian con-man John Daly.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown