More thoughts on climate change

I posted this earlier this morning on The Herald-Dispatch user forums. You can see it here.

But here it is anyway. I can't get enough of reading the science of global warming. In the past two months, I've learned more about it than I knew before, both the science and the politics.

I don't know if the earth is getting warmer or colder.

If it is getting warmer, is the additional heat distributed evenly or in ways that do or don't matter?

If it is getting warmer, how much is natural and how much is man-made?

If it is getting warmer, is that good or bad?

If it is getting warmer, and if that is bad, what do we do about it?

Does it really matter if I use fluorescent light bulbs and drive a car that gets 5 more miles per gallon if China and India keep bringing all those new coal-fired power plants on line?

Going to a more carbon-neutral lifestyle could cause serious shock waves in the American economy. Are we willing to unilaterally disarm when China and India aren't? Can we tell China and India they should not attain our standard of living because their carbon emissions might be making the earth warmer?

Global warming has two components: scientific and political. Too many people are making the scientific part political, and they ignore the political realities.

I've been reading as much of the science of global warming as I can understand. I tend to think a lot of it is from natural causes, but I'm not ruling out human influence. I'm a skeptic, but I'm not a doubter.

And I really resent it when some folks say "The debate is over." The debate has just begun.