jeckyl,

While I applaud your attempt to get beyond the hype and PR machines of both sides, I think you have too narrowly constrained the debate to one of "climatology" and thereby exclude scientists who hold other educational backgrounds. First, it is not uncommon at all in the realm of research for someone who has a PhD in a particular field to branch off and gain considerable expertise in other areas. Hence, to exclude people solely based upon their interests of 20 or 30 years ago is far too restrictive of a filter.

Secondly, and most importantly, the issue of climate change is MUCH more than just the study of climates. It is far too simplistic and potentially economically devastating to say, "well, things are getting warmer, so let's shackle our economy in an effort to stop CO2 emissions." This, unfortunately, seems to be the mantra of many. For us to make that radical step, it is grossly insufficient to just cite 30 years of temperature change as a rationale. To warrant the type of approach that Al Gore is suggesting ALL of the following need to be true:

• The Earth actually is warming
• The major cause of the warming is CO2 emissions
• We can stop and/or reverse the warming by cutting back on CO2 emissions
• The net effect of climate change is sufficiently catastrophic in nature that action is mandatory
• Competing economies like China and India will also be willing to take such steps to curb their emissions.
• Dealing with climate change by adapting to it is less economically feasible than trying to stop it

As you can see from this list of issues that impact the entire debate, climatology is just one of many sciences that must be involved in the study and proposed solutions. We need biologists, botanists, zoologists, physicists, engineers, geologists, oceanographers, economists and even international relations experts to weigh in on this subject. After all, even if climatological science could tell us with 100 percent certainty that the earth is warming because of CO2 emissions (which they can't), that is insufficient information to make any sort of public policy decision.