Global warming - was Re: Michael Crichton dies

[Martin Baeker <martin.baeker@tu-bs.de>]

> There is no such thing
> as scientific consensus about global warming as being caused by
> humans, and predicting the future of our climate is simply guessing.
> We can't even predict next month's weather accurately.


Sorry, but I do have to comment on this part, because it is the most
ridiculous and most often repeated argument on denial of AGW.

Predicting short-term fluctuations and long-term trends are two
different pair of shoes entirely. I cannot predict next week's weather,
but I can rather confidently predict that it will be colder than the
weather we had in summer. 

I cannot predict the exact behaviour of any single human, but I can
safely predict that when the next football (that's soccer for you over
there) game starts hereabouts I will encounter lots of drunken people
in the metro.

etc. etc.

I think denial of anthropogenic global warming is not scientifically
sound anymore cause the evidence is overwhelming, but if you want to
argue for it, use at least arguments that have some plausibility.

Regards,

Martin.

                   Priv.-Doz. Dr. Martin BÃker
                   Institut fÃr Werkstoffe
                   Technische UniversitÃt Braunschweig
                   Langer Kamp 8
                   38106 Braunschweig
                   Germany
                   Tel.: 00-49-531-391-3073
                   Fax   00-49-531-391-3058
                   e-mail <martin.baeker@tu-bs.de>