The Mushy Debate Over Climate Change and Global Warming, Formerly Global Cooling, Formerly Global Warming, Formerly Global Cooling . . .

Adam and Jeff consider the increasingly blurred line between science and theology in the climate change world where many people--regardless of whether they are actual scientists or people who like to hang out with scientists--assert that humanity is in global warming death spiral.  They point to the past two centuries beginning in 1800 with the start of the Industrial Revolution during which time the global temperatures have ticked upward between 1 to 2 degrees.  However, Jeff notes that two centuries is a tiny blip in the 4 billion year life of planet earth and that we should be very careful not to extrapolate short-term changes in temperature over longer periods of time involving thousands of years or more.  After all, if we were to assume that the global temperatures will rise 1 degree each century going forward, then in 10,000 years we would be living on a planet with boiling oceans and far fewer cruise ship passengers--a swing in temperature that has not occurred in billions of years.  Adam and Jeff also point out that many factors contribute to the temperatures on earth in addition to human activities such as ocean currents, solar activity, weather patterns, planetary wobbling, and flatulent livestock--which cannot be neatly separated from each other.  Jeff also asks about the temperature measurements taken a century or more ago and wonders about the accuracy of these these readings  since he has trouble differentiating the degree marks on the normal-sized rectal thermometer that he keeps handy for recreational reasons.  Adam and Jeff also caution their listeners not to take the predictions of computer models very seriously because their results are obviously going to reflect the assumptions made by the programmers which may reflect their own political views about climate change.