It seems to me that we can not know how significant our contribution to global worming is with out knowing the average cycle of worming /cooling has been over the ages. I believe we have not collected enough data in that area to establish a baseline. We have been measuring climate changes form the 1800s. Scientist have looked at ice layers and tree rings and geological layers to determine historic trends in worming and cooling. But I have not seen, and maybe I missed it, anywhere an accurate chart of the normal cycles through out the ages. What thy have collected has holes in it. If we don’t know the normal cycles and how far we are currently form it then we don’t know how much we have contributed to the normal cycle. No one has subtracted out the noise. The tendency, from what I have seen, is that some like to blame the whole mess on the last 200 years. Not a correct picture. Jim --- On Wed, 3/4/09, stormcrow60@xmission.com <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote: From: stormcrow60@xmission.com <stormcrow60@xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Global Cooling To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 5:52 AM Hi Erik, I read the article you had linked to. The article is NOT promoting the idea that humans contribute an insignificant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is debunking the myth that humans are contributing too little CO2 into the atmosphere. What it actually states, in a nutshell, is that although the total output of human CO2 is insignificant compared to natural sources of CO2, it is stating that the amount produced by humans is has tipped the balance of CO2 in the atmosphere. The natural carbon sinks ie, the oceans, limestone etc, are over saturated, and cannot hold the amount of extra CO2 humans are pumping into the atmosphere. Again... one must really read and understand what is being represented. But thanks for the article. Jon _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com