Debunking the Urban Legends of Climate Change

from the increasingly valuable climate.org:

Legend 1 - Climate change is happening but is caused by solar variations beyond human control.

The most apparent variations in solar intensity are linked to the 11-year sunspot cycle. Satellite observations indicate that solar intensity only varies by around 0.1% or about 0.24 W per m2 over one cycle. As a result, the timing and amount of change in solar radiation are unable to account for the large and steady increase in temperature since 1970.
It has also been hypothesized that the sun varies on longer timescales than the 11-year sunspot cycle. However, reconstructions of the long-term variations in solar activity over the last 400 years are only able to explain a small fraction of the warming observed in the industrial period.

http://www.climate.org/topics/climate/debunk-climate-myths.shtml

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

a great resource of articles and essays dealing with many popular RW talking points.

one comment from one of many samples:
I was writing about science in the 1970s. I wrote then about the predicted "global cooling trend." It was predicted, sure, but it was based on scientists' confirmation and new understanding of Milankovitch cycles, which are astronomical cycles, and which appear to combine to create the coming and going of ice ages.
So ... yes ... in the 1970s, scientists were predicting a coming ice age. That was a big deal back then, to be able to predict that. But the ice age was predicted to come in about 10,000 years. Not immediately.

At the same time, in the 1970s, some scientists were already discussing global warming as a real possibility for the immediate future.

So there's been no shift in scientists' opinions. Those who suggest such a shift are distorting history. There's been only increasing understanding - a steady progression of understanding - about the seriousness of global warming in 21st century and beyond.

Deborah Byrd
Earth & Sky
"A Clear Voice for Science"

Deborah Byrd Earth & Sky Radio Series "A clear voice for science."

It's just about providing an "alternative narrative"- doesn't matter if that narrative is known to be bullshit. Yeah, they're coming out of the woodwork with that sort of thing, now.

The official line used to be "It's not happening"- now that it's well nigh impossible to claim it ISN'T happening, that's switched to "It's happening, but it's not our fault". Once that becomes a wash, watch for it to switch to "It's happening, it's our fault, but it's too late to do anything about it". :eyes:

use the same couple of people over and over again...

just search for their last names on google and or on http://www.realclimate.org/ to get the dirt on them.