Are You a Global Warming Skeptic? Part IV: BLOG: SciAm Observations
If you are ready for a patient, scholarly analysis, part of an ongoing blog that was featured here earlier, then read on…
When climatologists run the fingerprinting analysis for different historical epochs, they find that temperature fluctuations prior to the Industrial Revolution were driven primarily by solar and volcanic forcings. In the early 20th century, natural and anthropogenic forcings seem to contribute equally. From midcentury onwards, greenhouse gases rule.
So unless I’m missing something, it seems to me that the case for anthropogenic warming is pretty strong. Is it unequivocal? Well, nothing in life ever is. There might be some low-frequency natural forcing. Plenty of i’s in fingerprinting analyses remain to be dotted. Based on the knowledge we have so far, however, I have to call ’em as I see ’em.