On Dec 23, 6:11*pm, bildan wrote:


So, do I 'believe' in global warming? *It's not a matter of belief -
it's a matter of what the data is saying. *What is available now is
extremely alarming.


I regard that point as honestly debatable. And all the hot air out of
Al Gore to the contrary, I do not think we've really had that debate.
I'd like to see this chap (Richard Lindzen, MIT prof.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...917025400.html
get a little more airplay as I think he's done some excellent work and
tough luck that the results don't play well with the current political
agenda. You can hardly call this "sniping at the edges".

Don't doubt for a moment that NCAR is full of earnest, smart, hard
working guys. And I think that if pressed over a couple of beers that
they will probably admit that their models are full of problems.
That's part of what Lindzen's work is all about: getting the
atmospheric data that will validate (or not) these models. Mostly
"not" at the moment, it appears. And until they *are* validated, the
models are not useful for prediction, full stop.

One thing I've wondered about rather idly, that I have not seen come
up in discussions on the topic of AGW, is what the AGW proponents
think about the cycle of the ice ages, and if these cycles are
supposed to have become irrelevant. My home has spent the majority of
the last million years under a *lot* of ice and snow. In fact, that
should probably be regarded as the normal condition here in what we
now call New Hampshire, USA. Do these guys *really* believe that the
cycle of the ice ages has been broken? If so, does their model
predict the end of the Holocene and a return to an ice age in the
absence of anthropogenic CO2? If not... pray tell, *why* not?

I don't work in this area. I have a business, well two of 'em
actually, to run, a family to take care of and a sweetheart of a curvy
beautiful 24 year old glider to fly in such spare time as I have, so
about all *I* have time to do on AGW is "snipe at the edges". In so
doing, I hope to plant seeds of rational thought in others' minds such
that we become as a whole a bit more resistant to being hearded about
like so many sheep.

-Evan Ludeman / T8