Earth is hottest it has been in 400 Years

Look, I am sorry I keep posting on Global Warming.  I know readers of this blog (if they are any) would much rather me put something up about the odds of John Stinson making it back to America alive or maybe giving up all his material possessions (again) and staying in Amsterdam.  For some reason the whole global warming debate fascinates me.  Today CNN.com published this article.   Here are some excerpts:

Study: Earth hottest in 400 years

Panel says humans responsible for much of the warming

"The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad
review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that
the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and
potentially the last several millennia."

"Climate scientists Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes had
concluded the Northern Hemisphere was the warmest it has been in 2,000
years. Their research was known as the "hockey-stick" graphic because
it compared the sharp curve of the hockey blade to the recent uptick in
temperatures and the stick's long shaft to centuries of previous
climate stability."

So we are going to begin to base policy decisions on  Michael Mann's study. Two Canadian Scientist Steven McIntyre and Ross McKitrick have extensively research methods.  Their WEBSITE contains a treasure trove of information on how flawed Mann's study is.  I think the following quote belows sums their research up:

"We showed that the PCA method as used by Mann et al. effectively mines
a data set for hockey stick patterns. Even from meaningless random data
(red noise), it nearly always produces a hockey stick." Full Article

Again, I am not saying that the earth is not warming.  The issue is whether man kind is causing it to warm or cool.  I don't believe we are and I would hope that if we are going to make policy decisions based on a group of scientist's research, hopefully there will be some sort of independent verification that reviews the scientist's methodology.

Comments

[Ted]

"Independent verification"? Surely you jest! While I would concede there are some talented climatologists who dispute the contention that man is causing an increase in temperature, 95%+ of the scientific community are in complete agreement. Your assertion somehow acts as if there is wide movement that disputes it. It simply is not true. It is about the same percentage of people who think that the moon landing was created in Hollywood.

Did you drink Michael Crichton's oil-company funded "analysis"?

I mean you just ahve to examine basic principles to know that we are having some impact. We, as a society, cannot possibly believe that we have no environmental impact. Yes, in the grand scheme of things we honestly do not know what level it is, but what we do know is that there are areas where we can make a difference. Increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles for example does many things. It is financially prudent for the operator (give the roller coaster prices of gas), it is better and cleaner for the environment and it limits our reliance on foreign oil.

My question to you is "why do NOT believe it?" What is it about the issue that makes you have a problem. I just do not understand this perspective. Honestly.