Quote from futurecurrents:
Ummmmm, where have you been? You sound very impressive but you are missing a whopper of a fact that makes your post ridiculous. They DO know that man's activities - mostly the burning of FF - is almost entirely responsible for the warming over the last fifty years. There IS a consensus that's nearly unanimous.
http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-intermediate.htm
Plus it's just plain common sense. But maybe your a Republican.
The question of the importance of man's activities is where the uncertainty lies. Contrary to what you believe, there is not unanimity among they experts. Some are certain and some are not. That makes it an unsettled issue.
Scientific questions are never properly settled by consensus anyway. Relativity theory wasn't "settled" by consensus --in fact when initially proposed there was a consensus against it-- nor was it settled by insight and mathematics, it was settled by observation. Eventually everyone will come to one side or the other with regard to man's influence on the climate. At that point we won't be trying to promote an idea by saying there is a "consensus". There will be unanimity. Let's hope it is sooner than later, but it is the data and its proper interpretation that will decide that.
As you know, since we now have better data, we find that C13 content is lower not just in CO2 from fossil fuel but in CO2 from natural sources as well (plant matter in general), and that the natural source and sinking of CO2 is at least two orders greater than CO2 contributed from fossil fuel. Consistent with this is the newest satellite data which indicates the most concentrated emissions of CO2 coming from undeveloped regions? Then we have the questions related to the proxy data. For example, some are calling into question the ice core data because they say diffusion of CO2, on the very long time scales involved, is not properly corrected for. So while every one agrees that CO2 is the second most important greenhouse gas, there isn't complete agreement yet on how important the fossil fuel contributed portion is to the whole, and there are many questions being raised with regard to both ice core and tree ring data.
I won't argue with your point that it has already been decided. Of course it has, even by some of the experts. I will point out though that not all the experts have decided yet. If there is a single observation that is inconsistent with with the hypothesis that man caused CO2 emission is significantly affecting climate, then the entire hypothesis has to be questioned unless the inconsistencies can be explained. They haven't been yet.
I learned a long time ago that while jumping to conclusions is invigorating, it can also reveal one as a fool. It is not yet time to be certain. We need more data and to revisit the interpretation of the proxy data and explain the inconsistencies in our observation.
Keep in mind that if the dependent and independent variable are swapped you still get the same correlations. Is it possible we have it backwards? I don't think we do, but we should allow for that in our interpretation. It is best to leave this to the experts. This entire business has become a fiasco because it entered the political arena prematurely. Now it is a mess because pride and reputation are on the line, and that hampers objectivity. Hanson will eventually be a hero or a goat, he is neither yet. But the more we learn, it seems his odds of becoming a hero may be fading.