The climate is certainly warming. CO2 is a greenhouse gas. C02 is not the only greenhouse gas and many things have historically influenced climate. CO2 has shown a dramatic rise since the industrial revolution. Those are facts. After that, things get messier. as we cannot know how much of the current rate of warming is due to the huge rise in C02. However, increased CO2 will increase the rate of climate warming regardless of the current underlying trend. Scientists have been worried about this since the '70's and even the politicians are now mostly convinced by the evidence. The climate has certainly shown huge swings in the past. Saying that is not much help as some of those swings were extremely severe. We are performing a big experiment with an uncertain outcome. Remember the ozone hole? We came pretty close to destroying a highly important protective layer of the planet so saying that nothing we do will influence the planet is somewhat unjustified. Keith ps I am a Scientist and have never manipulated data and rarely thrown teddies. Keith |