The Royal Society of New Zealand has released a statement setting out the basic facts about climate change in a clear, non-technical way. The Introduction to the statement says:
The globe is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Measurements show that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are well above levels seen for many thousands of years. Further global climate changes are predicted, with impacts expected to become more costly as time progresses. Reducing future impacts of climate change will require substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
The rest of the statement goes on to lay on the evidence underpinning this statement. It's the perfect reading matter for climate change sceptics who are still prepared to listen to reason.
You can read the full statement at http://www.rsnz.org/news/releases/clim0708.php
But the world doesn't seem to be warming any more
The Royal Society statement goes wrong right at the start with its introduction, because the globe currently is NOT warming, and hasn't been for about 10 years. Depending on which set of temp measurements one cares to look at it could even be argued that there has been a little cooling over the last decade.
This link gives a critique of the Royal Society statement by Dr Vincent Gray, who happened to be an IPCC expert reviewer, and who has now resigned in protest. So is this the consensus that is being talked about?
http://nzclimatescience.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=312&Itemid=1
Uh, no.
Why does the opinion of a retired coal chemist matter?
From the Wikipedia article on Vincent Gray: "Vincent R. Gray (born 1922, London) is a retired New Zealand-based coal chemist, climate author, self-selected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expert reviewer...".
Note "self-selected".
Three more points:
1. The word "skeptic" means "one who seeks the truth". Don't take Vincent Gray's word for anything; review the evidence and figure it out for yourself. That is what real skeptics do.
2. There is a consensus among climate scientists, and all the chemists, engineers, political scientists, economists and truck drivers who have raised doubts are no more qualified to do so than I am.
3. A ten-year run proves nothing in climate science. Check back in 20 years. In the mean time, leave the science to the scientists, or learn it.
The Truth of the Matter
Climate change statement from the Royal Society of New Zealand: Introduction (1st para.): The Royal Society of New Zealand convenes an "expert committee" on climate... ...to produce a statement to make "absolutely clear" what the evidence...
Their Statement (1st para.): global warming ... is "very likely" to be due to...
Expert Committee? - Yeah right!
Wake up and smell the roses guys - this, so far, has to be the worlds biggest hoax!
It really doesn't matter if
It really doesn't matter if the earth is warming or not. What is obvious is that our way of living is not sustainable. We are polluting too much, using too many resources, too much fuel, too much land etc. It cannot and will not last. This is why we have to make the kinds of changes promoted on this site.