By all indications, the Earth has been warming. Scientists such as Pielke, Lindzen, and Christy, prominent skeptics of global warming, acknowledge that the Earth has warmed since about 1850. That is hasn't warmed since 1998 is more an indication that the alarmists were off in their predictions, than anything. They also believe that man has contributed to it. Where they dispute the global warming alarmists is largely on these points:

1. Carbon dioxide being the primary cause (Pielke thinks land use is a bigger factor).
2. How much it has warmed (Christy has done a lot of work analyzing satellite data that indicates it hasn't warmed as much as ground-based temperature measurements).
3. How much we know about the climate (all 3 believe the alarmists are vastly overstating their knowledge of how the climate works).
4. Whether a little warming is necessarily bad.

>That may be true, but you haven't heard the GW group (that's not George Bush either) say anything about the earth cooling. Lemmings can do nothing but line up, or so it seems. I ain't no stinkin lemming though. If I thought man were causing the warming, which isn't happening, well, the logic is too confusing. Let me try again, hmmm, if it were a FACT that the earth is warming, I would want to know that. Then, I would want to KNOW what the cause is. Neither of those things have been demonstrated to my satisfaction.
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>The wack jobs have been saying it's Global Warming because the inventor of the internet said it was, and he had some slick hollywood pals who put a money making scam together and sell carbon credits to fools.
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>So, since the earth isn't warming, now we have to start bemoaning the fact that THE EARTH IS COOLING! THE EARTH IS COOLING! THE EARTH IS COOLING! THE EARTH IS COOLING! It cannot be a natural cycle of ebb and flow, therefore it must be caused by those evil Republicans.
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>Arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111