re: #86 lostlakehiker

Say this warming is not unique. Still, most of the time, the earth doesn’t warm like it is currently. Most of the time, the temperature goes sideways. So yeah, IF this warming isn’t unique, it might have a natural cause. But this warming might well be because of the CO2. After all, CO2=greenhouse gas, there’s more of it, and things heat up. That’s what the lawyers call a prima facie case.

On this, we agree precisely. My goal is not to show that the recent warming isn’t anthropogenic; obviously some of it is.

The reason AGW is “urgent” is that we’re about to hit a “tipping point” where the temperature is going to do more than rise a little bit. The current global temperature is not, yet, viewed as worse than it was 100 years ago. But if it rises suddenly and uncontrollably so that the polar ice caps melt and sea level rises a lot, then the warming becomes a problem.

But if it was warmer a thousand years ago and it didn’t tip then, we don’t yet have a problem. Global warming could need bold action eventually, but the statements that we only have a few years to fix the problem depend on it being warmer now than in the middle ages.