Sparrowawk,
Sorry about the lecture, but your assertion about the heat wave in the eastern United States (-July was very hot here in North Carolina, yet I’ve seen it hotter)as evidence for anyone to use for climate change is wrong, and i felt oblige to straighten this out.
As a geology student back in the ’70′s we were taught that the possibility for climate change in either direction was a possibility. Yet at that time no conclusive data existed to support either scenario. Now however, data is overwhelming from almost all of the specialists in the fields of climatology that shows we are warming. The present observed change is not consistent with what is naturally expected. Average air and sea temps are rising. Greenland’s icecaps are experiencing more summer melting that has been recorded. Arctic sea ice is thinning, and open water exists where none has ever been recorded. Permafrost is thawing that has not ben witnessed before by natives who have lived there for millennium. Yes, there was a medieval warming, but that warming was not as warm as what we’ve experienced in the mid 20th century. And it’s rising still more as we speak.
