Laurie David's opinion on the subject of global warming is worthless.

For starters, the earth's temperatures have plateaued and cooled since 1998. That's ten years of no warming. Clearly, the 'experts' she relies on don't understand the climate as well as they claim.

For her to suggest that all scientists agree that CO2 causes significant global warming is just plain silly. One can easily find hundreds of scientists who believe that increased CO2 will cause no additional warming or at most one more degree of warming.

Finally, her book The Down-To-Earth Guide to Global Warming has a whopping error on page 18. The graph of CO2 and time has its axes mislabeled, making it look like increases in CO2 historically precede increases in temperature. In reality, temperature rises have preceded CO2 rises. This makes sense, because warmer oceans hold less dissolved CO2 than colder oceans.

Pretending that we should only look at warming since 1998 is obviously fatuous and misses the bigger picture of global warming. Global temperatures have in fact been on an upward trend since the 1850s, even though there have been a couple of cooler periods during that time. So apparently it's YOU who doesn't understand climate as well as you pretend.

Secondly, your claims about CO2 are confused...you suggest that David is saying that "CO2 causes significant global warming," which is true, but then claim that "hundreds of scientists" believe that "increased CO2 will cause no ADDITIONAL warming," a different question altogether.

Finally, a single error in a book does not refute David's claims about warming, or anyone else's either. It's simply what you say it is, an error.

I'd urge that you come out of denial and admit the Earth is warming, and that humans may well have something to do with it.

Horus:

Pretending that we should only look at warming since 1998 is obviously fatuous and misses the bigger picture of global warming. Global temperatures have in fact been on an upward trend since the 1850s.

Is it really significantly more fatuous than looking at a slightly less tiny increment? I think the scientific concensus is that the earth is several million years old. Of course, you may be some sort of Young Earth Creationist (a charge I suspect you would flat-ly deny). Global Warming hysteria hinges on people's misconception that global temperatures should be static, when in fact the planet has gone through numerous warmings and coolings, all without the help of human beings (but maybe space aliens).

Yeah well you have to remember who you were replying to. Just try reading his posts, the word diplomacy or compromise isn't in his (or is that her?) vocabulary.