by Steve Litchfield

Created on: May 07, 2009

According to the world's most preeminent science organizations, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center (NOAA NCDC), and others, anthropogenic global warming is real and is happening right now. For their position statements on it you can go to these web pages;

http://www.aaas.org/news/press_room/climate_change/m tg_200702/aaas_climate_statement.pdf

http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.ht ml

There is an excellent treatment available on the internet by noted science historian Spencer Weart on the history of the science behind the discovery of CO2 as a greenhouse gas and its contribution to global warming over the last century. You can find it at this web address;

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm

At the present time there is no debate in the mainstream scientific community as to the behavior of CO2 as a greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere. The science behind it is well known. Nor is there any debate in the mainstream scientific community over the increase in concentration of anthropogenic CO2 in the earth's atmosphere over the last century due to industrial development and activity. This has been established through direct measurements of CO2 concentration in the air over decades and indirectly through the measurements of CO2 in ice cores drilled in the Arctic.

Neither is there any more debate in the mainstream scientific community over the reality of the increase in average global temperature over the course of the past century. Global temperature measurements from weather stations in many locations on the earth's surface over decades have shown this to be an unequivocal trend. And the effects from increasing global temperatures have also been noted, such as the melting of glaciers and the migration of climate zones. So one might ask why all the debate and dissension that one finds in the popular press and among the lay public?

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists much of the controversy has been artificially manufactured by a program of disinformation orchestrated and funded primarily by ExxonMobile. In addition to a prominent member of the fossil fuel industry, the UCS has alleged that several other organizations have also been active in promulgating disinformation on anthropogenic global warming to the public.You

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