Straw Men And The Little Ice Age | Media Matters for America

"Recovery" from the Little Ice Age is not an explanation for warming any more than "recovery from falling" is an explanation for why a basketball bounces. University of Arizona climatologist Malcolm Hughes said via email that Taylor's claim is "as unscientific and uninformative as that other old chestnut, that 'climate has always varied,'" adding, "Science is about how things work."

Penn State's Michael Mann also said that "The climate doesn't 'rebound'" and that such a claim "belies a complete lack of understanding of the physics of the climate." There is no default or normal state to which the climate "recovers" after warm and cold periods. Rather, the global temperature is determined by the amount of energy entering and leaving the atmosphere, which, in turn, can be altered by a variety of factors including the Earth's orbit, greenhouse gases, volcanic eruptions, air pollution, solar changes, and feedback effects.

Climate scientists have tried to account for the recent warming trend without including the effects of human activities like the burning of fossil fuels. But only when human influence is added can model simulations match up with the observed temperatures. As Mann and his colleagues at RealClimate.org explained, "none of the natural factors which could potentially cause warming ... show a trend since the mid 20th century."

OCCUPY COP 17–CMP 7 ! | Watts Up With That?

Anyone concerned about the huge influence of Wall Street on our lives should definitely be protesting the influence of Wall Street on the upcoming climate conference in Durban, South Africa. Durban is the latest incarnation of the occasional IPCC celebration. I’m not sure what it celebrates, perhaps they are celebrating being given prepaid tickets and receiving a salary plus a per diem to fly halfway round the world to a lovely remote spot to listen to people talk about wasting fossil fuel.