What has become increasingly clear is that the "climate" is not in any way stable. Over the earth's history it has bounced all over the place, pausing briefly only to wander off again in a random direction, like a pebble bouncing downhill getting lodged for a time only to take off again the next time something bumps it. There is no evidence that there is some average climate baseline that it tends to return to. Any stability is purely local, a small dent in the slope that the pebble temporarily sits in, and we don't have any way to accurately estimate how big this local stability is, and what will happen when we roll out of it. To use another analogy, it's like a piece of paper blowing in the wind; it might get stuck on a tree or the side of a building for a while, but you can't predict how long it's going to be there or how much force you need to peel it loose again. But you would be nuts to regard it as something even partially fixed in place, onto which you could hang a lot of weight. If you like it where it is, you should probably make an effort NOT to move it.

I was with you till the last line. Look at your own argument. If the climate is so wildly unpredictable all on it's own, how is it that we can determine that it's perfect where it is and proceed to make it stay here?

FordTruck5Speed:

If the climate is so wildly unpredictable all on it's own, how is it that we can determine that it's perfect where it is and proceed to make it stay here?

OK, now I know that you're being satirical. Nobody could ask that seriously. But on the offchance, I'll just plagiarize:

"1) The climate stability human civilizations have seen is unusual.

2) The climate can change rapidly and perhaps disastrously, and has done so many times in history.

3) Small changes in climate had real impacts on civilizations.

In short, climate history shows that we have to respect the climate system, and not take its services for granted." <link>

Or, more succintly,

"As Wallace Broecker likes to say, the Earth's climate system is 'an angry beast' and one that we should not be poking with sticks" <link>

Yeah...satirical. Good one.

I ask it seriously because it's a contradiction to say that the climate goes haywire all on its own and then in the next breath say that we have control over it.

Trust me, you'll never find another non-meteorologist that respects the weather more than I do. Call me a geek, but I'm a weather nut. I read computer models and check out forecasts...the whole bit. That and I work in the weather frequently, so I kind of have a vested interest in weather.

The problem I have with people in your camp is that we can't sneeze without causing global warming. Everything is about global warming. Everything causes it, and everything is caused by it, including cold winters. Just like in the 70s when everyone knew we were going to freeze to death. I'm sorry, but after looking at the evidence, I just don't buy the idea that the Earth is cooking and it's all our fault because we drive to work.