Best estimates have anthropogenic warming at about 1C. While we have been in an interglacial period for about 12,000 years and will continue to warm and experience the resultant increases in sea levels, there is concern that anthropogenic increases will also continue. The concern is essentially for the next 100 years. A further anthropogenic increase of 2-3 C would have geopolitical consequences. You can not find anyone who actually understands the science to dispute that there has been anthropogenic warming. What is debated is how much has occurred and how much more additional anthropogenic warming will occur. The current models tend to run warm in the equatorial mid-troposphere when retrospective run are examined. In my opinion, as someone who actually developed atmospheric models for the Government, the models are not really ready as a tool for developing public policy. Unfortunately, it is the 8.5 scenario that the media and politicians have focused on.
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Originally Posted by golfing eagles
Nice try, but here's a better definition:
Global warming is a sub-category of climate change, during which average global temperatures are rising. The opposite is global cooling, also a sub-category, which is obviously when global temperatures are dropping.
Both have occurred cyclically many times over in the past 4 million years (time frame of our current ice age). Neither have anything at all to do with the last 100 years of burning fossil fuels.
Unless, of course, anyone can name the make and model of Fred Flintstone's SUV  |