Commentary: A Lot of Hot Air

Sigh. Just when I thought that maybe logic and reason were making headway in the media's treatment of the whole "global warming" issue, this article comes to light. According to the AP article, 6 former heads of the EPA all blamed Bush for not doing more to help combat global warming. Not surprisingly, of course, this was trumpted as the lead headline. All these former administrators (who are not necessarily scientists) also agreed that it was primarily a man-made phenomenon.

Of course, these administrators only know what the scientists who worked for them said. Sadly, the atmospheric science community has bought into global warming wholeheartedly. Global warming is treated as a fact in most atmospheric science journals. The problem is that the connection between global warming and human activity is shaky at best. I should know. I'm trained as an atmospheric scientist.
Without a doubt, there seems to be a slight upward trend in the average temperature of the lower part of the earth's atmosphere in the past 30 or so years. However, the problem is figuring out what is causing it. Is it because of increased carbon dioxide emissions? Or could it be because of "station bias". By station bias, I mean the following: most recording stations were situated at airports that used to be far outside the city limits. As cities have grown, however, more and more reporting stations are surrounded by urban infrastructure. Cities tend to be a few degrees warmer during the day than the surrounding country due to the thermal properties of asphalt, concrete, and metal used in roads, sidewalks, and buildings. So, the apparent warm-up could really be an artifact of not measuring atmospheric temperature in the same environment as 30 years ago.
Could global warming be caused by human action? Sure, it could. However, the evidence that I have seen is not concrete enough to establish a causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and average atmospheric temperature. Until better research from unbiased scientists comes out, let's not make a lot of foolish decisions. Just because most scientists agree doesn't automatically make the idea that they agree to the correct idea.