Yes, and it is caused by humans. But if you have friends, colleagues, relatives or readers of your blog or facebook feed bothering you about this, telling you that Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a hoax or a false claim or a lie, you may want this tool:
The Debunking Handbook: now freely available for download
The Debunking Handbook, a guide to debunking misinformation, is now freely available to download. Although there is a great deal of psychological research on misinformation, there's no summary of the literature that offers practical guidelines on the most effective ways of reducing the influence of myths. The Debunking Handbook boils the research down into a short, simple summary, intended as a guide for communicators in all areas (not just climate) who encounter misinformation.
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I was expecting a picture of a cluebat. But this might work too.
That's right, download this book. Its great.
cheers
Hi, Klem. Well, of course when the denialists use vague Limbaughgenic accusations such as "it's just a religion", it takes a little work to explain to any potentially educable but currently clueless lurkers why that's silly and vacuous.
Climatology has no prophets, no holy texts, no hymns, no holy days, no sacred buildings, and neither proscribed nor prescribed behaviors. What it does have is a wealth of peer-reviewed papers from all nations, accumulated over decades and painting the same picture. The data is multi-faceted, including but not limited to satellite temperature readings; land climate station temp readings; ocean temp measurements; ice cores; tree rings; biologists' observation of changes in population, behavior, and distributions of thousands of species, and their ecosystems as a whole; and the physical and chemical science to provide explanations for these readings. The community of climatologists consists of graduates of accredited science colleges in universities, and is supported by the vast majority of scientists in other fields (e.g. biologists, paleontologists, physical chemists, atmospheric scientists, etc.). And anyone can read the news - the severity of floods, the the severity of droughts, melting Arctic ice and land glaciers, increase in certain numerous pests, death of forests, and other processes were all predicted by, and are explained by, climate models.
Some places for lay folks to go to get started on becoming informed is
http://www.realclimate.org/
http://skepticalscience.com/
And most good science blogs (like this one) cover it on occasion.
Say Klem, what other sciences do you understand better than the professionals in that field?
I should note that, annoyed, I deleted the denialist parts of Klem's post. I delete denialst comments all the time as per the stated policy of this blog. (Explanation as to why provided therein, see About page). I had not seen kermit's comment which was held in moderation at the time.