Do you think people are causing the warming that isn't happening?

Trav, it depends on the time interval. The Earth is cooling in the last billion years, the last 100 million, the last 10 million, the last 3 million, etc. We happen to be living in an unusually warm period between glacial periods but even now we are much colder than we were 6000 years ago. We are warmer than we were a hundred years ago so if you only consider that time in a life span, then we are marginally warmer. We are coming off a relatively cold period 300 years ago. Ice always melts trav. Melting ice isn't proof of anything. There were glaciers a mile high over Manhattan 20 thousand years ago. Guess what happened, they melted, and it had nothing to do with humans.

Has it warmed in the last 15 years? Not much but for me that is a short period. It does demonstrate that many of the dire predictions not so long ago were way off base.

No, I do not think people are causing the warming that isn't happening!

Perhaps the quizzes here should major on logic rather than "facts". I say this because, as mere sceptics, we are constantly being reminded that "weather is not climate" and "global is not local". We have also been told that the measure of global warming is provided by the global average surface temperatures.

On that basis, how can anyone claim that global warming is still happening when the surface temperatures are not increasing? Even if the oceans are warming that is neither global warming nor surface temperature increase.

If the goalposts are to be moved, then someone will need to explain how CO2 is warming the air but the temperature is not increasing and how that energy from high in the atmosphere is making its way into the oceans. Has it always done this or did the laws of physics change 17 years ago? Enquiring minds need to know.

Global warming is happening because sea ice is melting and that is something you can prove. You are ignorant if you don't think the planet is warming.

Having said that, you can NOT prove what is the cause. It could definitely just be a cycle, and we could begin a cooling trend next week. What gets me is when it is cold at someone's house, they think it is cold everywhere and immediately make jokes that the planet is warming. It is called Global Warming, not city warming. The ice has been melting consistently over the past several years, and that is proof. Now the cause of it nobody knows. That is where the controversy begins.

Humans do not and cannot control the planet's temperature.

Consider that it would take all the electrical production worldwide over 200 years just to provide the same amount of energy sent to us by the Sun in a SINGLE DAY. You can review the calculation here: http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar...

The Sun drives climate and nothing else comes close to it's influence. And people don't control the Sun.

Top climate scientists say there is no man-made Global Warming.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtevF4B4RtQ

Global Warming Doomsday Called Off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5O1HsTVgA&playnex...

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Temperate regions of the Planet are used to diagnose the "Global Warming Issue". In knowing that the variability in the Midwest (Chicago for example has been as low as -27F and has been as high as 105F) is as much as 132F or higher, then a diagnosed rise of 1.2F in Global average temperatures in 133 years of instrumental measuring could be caused by our inaccuracy of measuring temperatures.

In direct answer to your question : Yes! It could be caused by human error or actual forcing of temperatures, but if you read Chicago's temperature records over the years, then you might not find the diagnosed warming from anthropogenic sources. :-)

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lot/?n=chi_temperature_rec...

You can't cause something that isn't happening. However, it is possible for people to be causing a warming based on CO2 that is counteracting an ice age. Then there would be no warming, and people are causing warming.

Ha ha, nice one. There's nothing like a bit of real world speak to panic the cultists.

Yes, I think that we are not.

yer a english teacher aint ya?.

It *is* happening, and yes, humans are causing it.

There has been a slowdown (possibly even a pause) in the increase of *surface* temperatures. But, 1. surface temperatures are not the entire planet (the oceans hold a lot more heat than the atmosphere), and 2. it's a short-term slowdown or pause, the long-term trend is still one of warming.

Or, to put it another way--it's more complicated than that.

Perfect! You've nailed it.