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This same article states: "...pre-industrial atmospheric levels of car-
bon dioxide were 270 parts per million (ppm),while today’s
levels are around 385 or 390 ppm..." That's a 40% increase. Are you telling me that is NOT going to have an effect?

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Oh man! How in the world did that get flagged as spam!?!? Argh! Damn Propeller!!! Okay, one more time...

Yes, that is exactly what I'm telling you Tangent. Your statistic of 40% is only for a period of less than 100 years! OVERALL, humans only contribute 5% of TOTAL CARBON EMISSIONS ON EARTH. So, your "40%" is merely a statistical manipulation to make it look like a dramatic increase. But the scale is too small. When you look at the big picture, you see that...

"Through glacial core sampling, climatologists have been able to liberate the earth's atmosphere from Antarctica and Greenland as far back as 400,000 years. They have found that there is a correlation between CO2 and the earth's surface temperature. The change in CO2 lags behind the change in temperature by 800 years. This proves that CO2 does not drive the change in temperature. Instead, temperature drives the change in CO2 in the earth's atmosphere."

But what drives temperatures then?

"The earth's climate is dynamic. It is always changing. There were periods in the earth's history where the climate was much warmer and much cooler than it is today. The current warming period is known as the Modern Warming Period. It was preceded by the Little Ice Age (LIA), which occurred around 1650 to 1850 AD. The LIA was preceded by the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), which occurred around 800 to 1300 AD. There was also a warming period after the last great Ice Age called the Holocene Climate Optimum, and it occurred around 7000 to 3000 BC. The last great Ice Age ended 10,000 years ago (i.e., 8000 BC). During this time, the earthÕs surface temperature was 7o Celsius cooler than it is today. Looking at climate through a geological time frame, we would never suspect CO2 as a major climate driver because none of the major climate changes can be explained by CO2, man-made or otherwise."

But then, why do temperatures seem to be rising?

"A common misconception amongst the general public is that temperatures are rapidly increasing. This is only with some of the surface data, and it is selected surface data. In fact, much of the surface data that is collected is around urban areas or areas, which have had significant land use changes. And, that data is contaminated. Most cities of the world are hotter than their surrounding environment. This has nothing to do with CO2 but has everything to do with land use. On the other hand, satellites provide comprehensive coverage of the earth 24/7. Satellite data from the last 29 years has demonstrated that there has been an almost imperceptible rise in temperature in the northern hemisphere from 1980 to 2002 and a slight decline from 2002 through 2007."

All this quoted info was from the second website I referenced in my original response. That's why I said it was "most interesting";-)

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