Global warming is manmade and it's a real problem

If the response to my April 12 global warming post is any indication, more than half of engineers believe that global warming is not a manmade problem. In fact, many think it’s a scam and freely cite The Great Global Warming Swindle as compelling evidence. They comments break down this way: 30 don’t think the problem is mandade at all; 20 are undecided and want more proof while only seven are onboard with Al Gore. That’s sad, sad, sad. Read all about it.

Colleague Brian Dipert, senior technical at EDN, has just completed a feature story, citing the September issue of Scientific American which has concluded that the scientific debate is over: global warming is a manmade problem and it’s dangerous. I agree. And Dipert comes out in favor of wind turbines as one of many possible answers to fossil fuel replacement. 

I was chastised for alleged misdeeds ranging from polticizing global warming to not presenting opposing arguments. Such arguments can be found on sites like realclimate.org. There’s no reason I would discourage such a discourse. Quite the contrary: April 12 post did exactly that and while some of you disgreed with my position that global warming is a manmade headache, you acknowledged that. Much appreciated. 

Like you, I make judgements based on what I read, hear, feel and see with respect to global warming for which I believe there is a preponderence of evidence. I sit in horrid traffic jams every day commuting to work and can only imagine the impact auto emmisions have on climate. Many of GW naysayers want me to cite science and numbers, but I highly doubt any of them have their own conducted tests. Their conclusions, like mine, are based on what they read, hear and see. In some cases, those beliefs - like mine - are influenced by social and political beliefs. 

Some say climate change is cyclical from Ice Age to Ice Age…that this is happens all the time so just wait another thousand years and it’ll get cold again. Global warming is due to solar flares and that things are heating up on Mars and Venus, too. Even if reducing CO2 emmisions had no impact on global warming thus proving the naysayers right, it would indicate that we’re relying more on renewable energy sources and conserving fossil fuels. How could that be a bad thing?