[brc]

I'll round it up for Thomas: - it's likely that the earth has seen temperatures as high or higher as recently as 1000 years ago, with no human input. The level of warming is not precendented in recent (geological) history - the rate of warming from 1979-2005 matches other rates of warming in the instrumental record, so the rate of warming is not unprecedented. -there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995 -the production of co2 and associated increase in the atmosphere has followed previous trends and predictions - sea ice loss and glacier loss may or may not be related to the warming temperature, in many cases it is not clearly known (ie Himalayas) and requires more study. In other cases it may be microclimate changes causing snow loss (Kiliminjaro, deforestation) - there is no statistically significant increase in extreme weather events measured over the 20th century. While there was an increase in insurance losses, this is due to more people and property living in high risk areas. - the early IPCC and other predictions made in the late '80s and early '90s have failed to predict the global average temperature - the underpinning of the AGW theory is that the earth has warmed since the mid 20th century, and scientists haven't been able to find any other reason, so the assumption is that it is greenhouse gases causing this, given they have gone from ~ 0.000035% to .000038% of the atmosphere

Don't believe me though : these are the facts as I have read and understand them, everyone reads and believes different things. Also see Richard Lindzens' recent post to the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/...) for his views on this type of editorial - he sums this up in a much better way than I could.

Finally, the 'in the pay of big oil and coal' is a tired meme and shows political advocacy rather than a true discussion of the issues. Most of the genuine research sceptics are self funded or in tenured university posts. Yes, there are oil-funded research groups, but these do not provide the bulk of sceptical views. The oil, gas and coal industries have donated millions to climate science research, and AGW research has received billions from governments. Like there is no shadowy conspiracy of climate scientists to instate a communist world government, there is no shadowy network of big oil funding for sceptics.