Sure it's inconclusive. It's a very hard thing to analyze because you have to average huge fluctuations over the whole Earth, and 70% of the Earth is oceans where you don't have weather stations. So you get different groups analyzing this. And they're pretty close. One group gets over the last century a warming of about .55 degrees centigrade. Another group says it's .75 degrees.
CP: Furthermore, over the last 25 years, the rate of warming has also been 0.8 degrees (C), much easier to measure because it's a stronger signal.
If you look at the temperature record for the globe over the last six years, it's gone no place.
CP: See point #4 in my profile. This can be said because the 1998 El Nino pulled global temperatures that year 0.2 C above the increasing temperature trendline. 2005, with no El Nino, was basically on the trendline, and was basically as warm as 1998. Thus, the trendline indicates a global temperature increase of about 0.2 C since 1998, consistent with the 0.8 C rise over the past 25 years. 2005-1998 = 7 years. 25/7 = 3.6. 3.6 x 0.2 C = 0.72 C. I presume an MIT professor can do math?
Before he died, Roger Revelle co-authored a popular paper saying, 'We know too little to take any action based on global warming. If we take any action it should be an action that we can justify completely without global warming."
CP: A 1992 article; Lindzen states this as if Revelle's opinion might not have changed with another 15 years of data and observations. And it was co-authored with well-known skeptic S. Fred Singer, who may have substantially determined the tone of the article. Revelle was rightly concerned about the accuracy of climate models in 1992. In response to the libel suit and Singer, Revelle's daughter wrote an op-ed piece entitled "What my Father Really Said". This article can only be obtained by paying the Washington Post. However, the blog article below has excerpts in a comment:
Andrew Bolt Gets a Perfect Score
Excerpt from the article, found in the comment:
"When Revelle inveighed against "drastic" action, he was using that adjective in its literal sense - measures that would cost trillions of dollars. Up until his death, he thought that extreme measures were premature. But he continued to recommend immediate prudent steps to mitigate and delay climatic warming. Some of those steps go well beyond anything Gore or other national politicians have yet to advocate." [In 1992. One of these steps was a $1.00/gallon gas tax.]
They appreciate that Michael Crichton at least included references.
CP: With regard to Crichton's book:
For anyone reading the post above, I’ll be unavailable for the next 10 days. Talk amongst yourselves.
OK, “CP”, if you want to support a dollar-a-gallon tax increase on gasoline, go for it. I’m not the one who’s going to have to explain to a poor person why he suddenly can’t afford to drive.
And at least stipulate that it go to something useful, like highways, rather than some energy scam like ethanol.