the last four summers at my locale have been staggeringly hot -- even the trees were dropping their leaves in mid-summer -- and the hottest that I have ever seen in the last forty-plus years. the popularity of the Global Warming argument waxes and wanes, as does the argument for Natural Vicissitudes. a NASA scientist was asked this question point blank on national radio: using standard political rhetorical strategy, he tapdanced away from committing to an answer. so, I call upon the Great Minds of MDL: what say ye?
I don't think that -any- scientist who values His/Her career wants to commit to the existance of global warming. Not without undesputable proof. There's an economic undercurrent that makes global warming a career breaker for a scientist. As with -many- issues in America, big business is at the heart of the problem. I'm not implying that all big business is sinister or evil; Many of the processes that businesses are forced to use are inherently dirty. Let's face it; Nobody wants to go without deodorant, soap, or any of the other countless sundries that we ravenously consume. And just about all of these items, as well as the containers in which they are sold are made with petrochemicals. It's easy to say "There's a problem with our environment", but not so easy to provide a solution that makes sense.
as you imply, scientists are people: they subscribe to the party line if they want to continue with their 70" HDTV 's, luxury SUV 's, and their materialism-exclusive culture. but fer chrissake: are there no comptetent academics -- mathematicians, chemists, biologists, .. -- or insiders to the political and economic arenas, willing to be a whistleblower? what happened to the rebel heroes?! with internet sites designed for anonymity -- Wikileaks, PirateBay, mydigitallife, ... -- how can it be that no competent academic has promulgated a convincing -- if not dispositive -- hypothesis and a statistical positive or negative correlation to support it? or an insider posting the details of the M. Joy's economic and political "undercurrents"?
Whatever happened to the independence of University, academic freedom, many a "stand-out", in any walk of Academia? I think we are, thankfully, still not completely bought out by corporations and strong-armed by state... Hence, we know about global warming and we know of many a "jolly contribution" of ours... Silly, not to acknowledge that!!!
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090119210532.htm http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-19/...ng-climate-science-human-activity?_s=PM:WORLD