Joachim-

Based on the evidence to date, I am skeptical of the Global Warming story:

• The 1.5 to 2.0 degree temperature rise over 140 years since 1880 does not seem very extreme.

• For hundreds of millions of years the earth’s temperatures have been higher than they are today, most recently the medieval warming period, and the planet has somehow survived.

• The Arctic ice sheet has reformed after melting more than usual earlier in this decade. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are growing thicker.

• The standard Global Warming fear-mongering approach is to show pictures of natural disasters, as you did at the beginning of your EI post. Contrary to the implication of this approach, there has not been an increase in extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes.

• CO2 is not a poisonous gas and in fact is essential for plant growth. The recent increase in atmospheric CO2 has contributed to the green revolution, allowing mankind to dramatically reduce starvation even though world population has grown many fold.

• So called greenhouse gases make up 1% of our atmosphere. These gases are comprised 80% water vapor, 10% CO2, and 10% other gases. Mankind’s CO2 contribution is 3%. That is, man made CO2 makes up 0.003% of Earth’s atmosphere.

• Combining this infinitesimally small contribution with the observation that climate is a chaotic system in which no statistical moments exist makes modelling man’s impact virtually impossible.

• Since the current climate models cannot be trusted, their predictions of future disasters cannot be trusted.

• Even if we accept that man contributes to Global Warming, which I do not, Bjorn Lomborg has convincingly argued there are dozens of other investments to be made that, for each dollar spent, generate far greater benefits for mankind.

So Global Warning fails the empirical, modelling, and economic viability tests. For these reasons, I long ago removed Global Warming from my worry list.

Tom