I used to agree with you and still do in a sense. While our global temperatures have varied in a cyclic way throughout time, there is no denying the effect man has on our world. With the aid of scientific research, we now can track the amount of atmoshperic carbon throughout our earth's history. The way we do this is with ice cores from deep below the artic crust. What we have found is that CO2 levels have been increasing dramatically ever since the bronze age. This may not sound like much of a big deal, cause after all, what's a little extra CO2 right? Shouldn't that make the trees grow better??? Anyways, this increase in CO2, along with other greenhouse gasses are very responsible for holding heat in our atmosphere. The way it works is very simple, but I never would have thought about this on my own. What happens is, as solar rays from the sun enters out atmosphere, they come in an assortment of short and longwave radiation, but mostly short wave. Anyway, what happens next is very similar to you leaving your car parked outside on a warm, sunny day. As the rays come in through your windows, as short wave radiation, they are reflected from your car's interior surfaces. The reflection of light from a surface is known as "albido". So, as the short waves reflect from your car's interior surfaces, the short wavelenggths are converted in to longwave radiation. Interestingly enough, longwave radiation cannot penetrate through your windows, thereby trapping the energy in your car, raising the temperature dramatically. The same thing happens with greenhouse gasses.
Now, before you all start calling me a pinko, tree hugging, commie, know that I don't buy into all the doom and gloom that is forced down our throats. I think that yes, the earth will continue to get warmer, naturally or not, and we all will be forced to cope with these changes. However, I see alot of possible benefits. One benefit with higher temps will be lengthened growing seasons and the incorporation of lands that were once
non-arable into arable land use types. This will hopefully allow us to produce more of the food and resources we need to hopefully support our out of control population. Just a hypo. Hope you guys can take this for what it's worth.
Jeff
