On 2005-09-01, wrote:
You know, I could care less about "the environment" (I mean, a 10-day
forecast fore one city is as good as a ouija board, but these guys
think they can forecast global weather patterns 100 years into the

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between a
meterologist and a climatologist.

Now imagine this analogy. You have a pan of water on a stove. The
meterologist is predicting where the bubbles will appear, and where the
convection will happen, and what it will do over the next 30 seconds.
The climatologist is looking at the flame, and noting that if you turn
the gas up, the water as a whole will heat faster leading to more
bubbles and convection. The climatologist isn't trying to predict where
the bubbles and the convection will happen, but just noting that turning
up the heat will certainly increase them. His job is quite frankly much
easier than the guy who has to predict the actual small scale
convections and the location of the bubbles.

In the same way, it is well understood and well known that increasing
the concentration of CO2 (and other gases) keeps more of the sun's
energy in Earth's atmosphere. It is therefore a certainty that if you
keep more of the Sun's energy, the Earth warms up, as certain as 1+1=2
or as certain as turning the gas up on the pot of water causes it to
heat more quickly. Just because the guy who predicts where the
convections are can't easily predict them 10 days from now, it doesn't
mean the guy who sees the heat has been turned up can't predict that the
whole system will contain more energy in 100 years time.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"