Quote from piezoe:
It is nice to know whether we are warming or cooling, and by how much. But what we really want to know, and don't yet, is whether man's activities are significantly affecting the rate of warming or cooling.
There is much new data that must be absorbed and considered. It will take some time to sort this out and putting this question into the political arena is the wrong thing to do. Let the experts sort it out and when there is a broad consensus among experts, not scientists in general, it will be time enough to sit up and take notice. We need to be listening to the climatologists, the meteorologists, and the atmosphere and solar physicists.
Let the Politicians keep quiet on this issue until we know more. There was far too much early jumping to conclusions based on far to little information. Initially our observations seemed consistent with the anthropomorphic warming hypothesis of Hanson and others; yet recently major doubts have arisen about the causes of the correlations the early researchers observed.
Our Earth's troposphere is affected by the interaction of many factors. It is far to complex a problem to allow for quick answers. Though the issue of possible anthropomorphic influence on the Earth's temperature was raised in the 1980's, only recently have we begun to get the kind of accurate data we need from scientific satellites to begin making real inroads on the problem.
It is good to remember that though one has a plethora of observations that are consistent with one's hypothesis, the hypothesis must be rejected if there exists a single inconsistent observation.