You’re right, and all of these “less intellegent” people are wrong:

“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” – Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical. “The main basis of the claim that man’s release of greenhouse gases is the cause of the warming is based almost entirely upon climate models. We all know the frailty of models concerning the air-surface system” – Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology, and formerly of NASA, who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” – UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” – Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet

“So far, real measurements give no ground for concern about a catastrophic future warming.” – Scientist Dr. Jarl R. Ahlbeck, a chemical engineer at Abo Akademi University in Finland, author of 200 scientific publications and former Greenpeace member.

“Anyone who claims that the debate is over and the conclusions are firm has a fundamentally unscientific approach to one of the most momentous issues of our time.” – Solar physicist Dr. Pal Brekke, senior advisor to the Norwegian Space Centre in Oslo. Brekke has published more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles on the sun and solar interaction with the Earth.

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” – U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

“After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri’s asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it’s hard to remain quiet.” – Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society’s Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

“The Kyoto theorists have put the cart before the horse. It is global warming that triggers higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, not the other way round…A large number of critical documents submitted at the 1995 U.N. conference in Madrid vanished without a trace. As a result, the discussion was one-sided and heavily biased, and the U.N. declared global warming to be a scientific fact,” Andrei Kapitsa, a Russian geographer and Antarctic ice core researcher.

“Nature’s regulatory instrument is water vapor: more carbon dioxide leads to less moisture in the air, keeping the overall GHG content in accord with the necessary balance conditions.” – Prominent Hungarian Physicist and environmental researcher Dr. Miklós Zágoni reversed his view of man-made warming and is now a skeptic. Zágoni was once Hungary’s most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” – Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” – Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

“The quantity of CO2 we produce is insignificant in terms of the natural circulation between air, water and soil… I am doing a detailed assessment of the UN IPCC reports and the Summaries for Policy Makers, identifying the way in which the Summaries have distorted the science.” – South Afican Nuclear Physicist and Chemical Engineer Dr. Philip Lloyd, a UN IPCC co-coordinating lead author who has authored over 150 refereed publications.

“All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead” – Geophysicist Dr. Phil Chapman, an astronautical engineer and former NASA astronaut, served as staff physicist at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

“CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” – Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.

“Whatever the weather, it’s not being caused by global warming. If anything, the climate may be starting into a cooling period.” Atmospheric scientist Dr. Art V. Douglas, former Chair of the Atmospheric Sciences Department at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and is the author of numerous papers for peer-reviewed publications.

“But there is no falsifiable scientific basis whatever to assert this warming is caused by human-produced greenhouse gasses because current physical theory is too grossly inadequate to establish any cause at all.” – Chemist Dr. Patrick Frank, who has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles.

“The ‘global warming scare’ is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society’s activities.” – Award-Winning NASA Astronaut/Geologist and Moonwalker Jack Schmitt who flew on the Apollo 17 mission and formerly of the Norwegian Geological Survey and for the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Earth has cooled since 1998 in defiance of the predictions by the UN-IPCC….The global temperature for 2007 was the coldest in a decade and the coldest of the millennium…which is why ‘global warming’ is now called ‘climate change.’” – Climatologist Dr. Richard Keen of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado.

“I have yet to see credible proof of carbon dioxide driving climate change, yet alone man-made CO2 driving it. The atmospheric hot-spot is missing and the ice core data refute this. When will we collectively awake from this deceptive delusion?” – Dr. G LeBlanc Smith, a retired Principal Research Scientist with Australia’s Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

“To many of us, there is no convincing evidence that carbon dioxide produced by humans has any influence on the Earth’s climate.”
Dr. Mark L. Campbell
Professor of chemistry at the U.S. Naval Academy

Collectively, the responses to TOMK prove that global warming is a religion, not a science. Science never concludes a matter for the ages, prohibiting further inquiry. Further inquiry is what proper science is all about. That, and a healthy dose of skepticism along the way.

Sometimes I find myself hoping….no, praying, that the issue really were settled

And if you think there’s a causation argument about global warming, the estimates on the near term economic impact of mandating dramatic reductions in CO2 are miles appart. Personally I don’t have much confidence in estimates from folks in Congress who can’t even estimate the cost of a Visitor’s Center with any degree of accuracy.

One final thought on burning carbon-based fuels. Let’s assume the U.S. magically stopped burning oil tomorrow. Do your really think China, India and the developing world won’t continue to burn oil until the very last drop on earth has been used, so long it’s one of the least expensive sources of energy?

It may be fair to say that, in waiting for the proof of deleterious anthropomorphic climate change, that irreversible damage _may_ be done. It’s even fair IMO to say that there shouldn’t be unnecessary waste or pollution on simple ethical grounds. However, when it comes to providing legitimacy for overarching, massive assumption of authority by the state, I’m almost irreconcilably skeptical. Also, the green agenda is shot through with the sort of collectivist, anti-civilization Rousseauian garbage that needs to die, almost as if the communist golem was simply painted green and a fresh copy of some Al Gore book was put in its mouth.

Whammer, you have a reading comprehension issue. I didn’t say global warming ISN’T real. Got it? The scientific argument is about causation, not temperture data.

This is what I find so annoying about debating anyone on the left. If you question man-made global warming, you must somehow be a supporter of Bush’s Iraq policy, or his economic policy. If you offer contradictory arguments from others in the scientific community, you’re an idiot, they’re idiots, or you’re all part of an evil cabal to hell-bent on destroying the planet for the sake of profit.

Keep clapping your hands over the your ears and chanting. Anyone who disagrees with you or offers a contrary opinion is a heretic and must be silenced. Debate cannot and will not be tolerated.

Gee, what a revelation!! There used to be an ice age, and the earth warmed up on its own. Why didn’t anybody ever think of that before???? That proves that the theory of man-caused global warming is a hoax and a religion!!!

Folks, this is exactly the point of the whole agnotology idea. The fact that Tom K hasn’t bothered to read anything that would explain the answer to his question is a testament to how well the whole strategy works. His question actually illustrates a very elementary point — natural changes can and do occur, and have been occurring forever. However, that does not mean man’s activities are irrelevant.

There is nothing wrong with being skeptical. What is wrong is throwing a bunch of poorly-sourced, misleading information out there that is deliberately intended to confuse people. And that is what is happening. And, look, here’s Tom K and pemorris to prove how well it works! It must be Proctor who is the one that is full of crap………

Fred Singer — in 1998, he said that there was no evidence the earth is warming. Then in 2003 he said the same thing. Then in 2007 he started to say “well, the earth is warming, but it is part of a 1500-year cycle”. A cycle that he can’t accurately document.

Fred Singer was also an important guy for the folks who said CFCs don’t influence the ozone layer and who said second-hand smoke is not harmful. I’m not exactly sure why Fred Singer shows up so consistently as the skeptical scientist. I don’t know why Exxon gave him $10,000 either. I’m also not sure why he cooperated so closely with PR firms hired by tobacco companies. I’d hate to think that so many other scientists are wrong and Fred Singer is always right, and the tobacco and oil connections are just pure coincidences.

Frankly, I would be delighted if there was convincing evidence that all this anthropogenic global warming stuff turned out to be wrong. I don’t have a dog in this fight, personally. However, the preponderance of the evidence is that global warming is real. It doesn’t mean that you need to listen to every forecast of every calamity and accept that those are true. But pretending that the whole thing is a myth or a hoax is just irresponsible.

Now that I’m 50, however, looking back on my conjugal life, I sometimes wonder whether she was not an agnotologist , but actually a truth teller.

Where’d you get the global warming quotes?

@spigzone,
Good job agnotologizing.

I also find it funny that the adherrence to the man-caused global warming religion can’t explain how global warming started long, long before the industrial age.