the greenhouse effect is not bad science, but several climate scientists believe current warming may be more directly related to solar intensity (ie. sun spots).
its very important that scientists clear this up, because limiting greenhouse gasses in the developing world will prevent development and further lock the third world in poverty, utterly dependent on "world trade." our leaders are all talking about different ways to tax our carbon footprint as individual citizens with the assumption that our environmental footprint can pretty much definitely be equated to carbon output, when this is actually quite debatable. i am very against pollution, but if our primary environmental cause becomes about limiting carbon output, when carbon may not be as critical as we believe, then we could subvert and weaken the entire environmental movement and create a new source of taxation for the working classes.
and its very difficult to make generalizations about global warming science, because while thousands of papers are written, the vast majority document warming or its environmental effects, but in no way attempt to confirm or disconfirm the greenhouse effect as a specific cause. for example, there is all this data on glaciers and coral bleaching, which people will take as evidence that greenhouse theory AND global warming are true, when in fact, only global warming is apparent.
John Cristy at UA, Richard Lidzen of MIT and Vincent Gray are all names to look up if you would like to hear informed critiques of global warming science.
ATG, your question about the end of the pleistocene glaciations is one that has not been definitively answered. periodic changes in sunlight intensity resulting from Milankovitch cycles is one explanation (changes in positioning of our wobbling planet throughout its orbit relative to the sun). atmospheric chemical balance (ie., greenhouse effect) is also assumed. sun spots and variable solar intensity is also named as a possible impetus for climate change. other theories include the "big burp" where methane could have risen from the ocean or meteor impacts which affect the atmosphere and can disrupt oceanic currents which regulate global temperature.
Last edited by Marinejuana (2008-01-22 07:58:01)