Evidence counters claims that world is suffering unprecedented warm spell - Scotsman.com News

A recent melting of ice in the Alps revealed a pass which was clearly in use during the Roman and Medieval periods. Carbon-dating of plant remains in Greenland at a location from which the ice has recently retreated shows that the roots dated from the time that the Vikings settled there around 1000AD, clearly finding its climate congenial.

According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the warmest years of the 20th century were, in order: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938 and 1939. So six of the top ten were more than 50 years ago; five were 70 or more years ago. Proponents of the "greenhouse gas" hypothesis explain that recent alleged global warming has been caused by the increase in output of by cars, planes and industry since the Second World War and especially since the 1970s. Do they have explanations for the points I have raised, or will they simply scream that I am denying facts, when, like most of us, I simply want a credible explanation of a phenomenon which seems readily explicable and not particularly alarming?

ANDREW HN GRAY

Daily Kos: We Must Dare to Hope: Support ACES in the Senate

The perfect must not become the enemy of the mediocre. The American Clean Energy & Security Act -- aka Waxman-Markey, HR 2454 -- is mediocre. It doesn't rise to the level of "good." I've labeled it as "diluted to homeopathic proportions." Polls here run neck & neck as between grudgingly passing it and scrapping it and starting over.

Nevertheless, it's what we have, and I'm going to support it. I'm going to call Senators, and I'm going to ask you to do the same...for political reasons, not scientific reasons. More below the fold.
...
We have two and a half months to strengthen the bill in committee. We will be outspent 16 to 1, so we will have to yell 16 times louder. Over the next days and weeks, diaries developed at DK Greenroots will spell out at whom to yell louder, when, and why. Join us there if you dare to hope.

Better off with sceptical leaders | The Australian

Yet climate change is an area in which we should allow room for doubt. The weight of scientific and political opinion backs the existence of human-induced climate change. When there is such universal agreement, doubters have an important role to play, both in terms of the science and the policy responses. Constructive sceptics (as opposed to ideological zealots) will be able to force our politicians and scientists to keep testing the evidence and exploring the options. That should lead to better outcomes for all of us.
---
Leigh Sales is the co-anchor of Lateline on ABC1. Her new book is On Doubt (MUP).