My point was not that there has been no global warming over the last ten or twenty years for that matter, it is that given the HUGE increase in carbon emissions in the last few years, this should be on a rising trend, not a weak rise, or a levelling off.

Some of the hottest summers in Europe were around 2000/2001 (not part of the Nino effect). They have since cooled.

I ain’t being blinded by science – or stats – on this one.

Also – “a few hundred years”! Have a think before you type! Three hundred years ago what state was science in? Newton was still alive and the Principia was less than 50, chemistry didn’t even exist yet, Darwin’s great grandfather hadn’t even been born. I’m not going to claim I know where science is going to be in a few hundred years time, but if we’re still crunching out models trying to work out the Earth’s climate, then something’s gone seriously wrong in the interim.

It doesn’t prove his point at all. Unless HMG can force the US, China and the rest of the world to cut CO2 emissions at gunpoint.

No, we have spent millions researching climate trends. What causes those trends (if they are trends) is entirely open to question. We must have theories but we really have no way of telling which ones are right. We may, in a few hundred years, have a clearer view, but that may be far too optimistic given the complexity of the problem.

Compare with an infinitely simpler problem where we have spent much more on research and much loner in reserching and consequently have much better data that can be laboratory tested (unlike a global climate): what causes cancer. Our answer so far … um … something to do with genes and something to do with environment.

When someone tells you they can be more positive about the much more difficult theoretical area of climate change, make sure you have your hand on your wallet.

Do we discuss the ideas and motives of Plane Stupid or even Climate Change
No, we indulge in reverse snobbery dressed up as comment.

Other than that, carry on boys and girls.

Short Order Coook explained this @ 3:27

Er yeah, that’s what they do.

Take a look at the above link. One would expect the global warming line to be accelerating now as China and India have been pumping huge amounts into the atmosphere in the last ten years. But 1998 was the warmest and the last few years have not been off the scale.

I certainly don’t think that the Gospel According to Gore (who nevertheless managed keep all the lights on in his 27 bedroom mansion AND clock up more air miles than the average pilot) has been proven to be true.

“Not so much ‘plane stupid’ as ‘plain stupid’ ”

Sorry that does really count as a witty riposte does it? I mean given they are punning on plain stupid in the first place.

How about “gapocrites”? They certainly are if they’ve jetted to Thailand or Peru in the last 5 years.