Quote:
Originally Posted by Arragonis
I'm interested in following this, if others are game - CO2 has risen in a straight line (more or less) during measured periods (which is only since WW2 by instrumentation, estimates and proxies before that) but temps haven't...
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Well, to start out with, you're wrong about CO2 having risen in a straight line. See here:
Scripps CO2 Program - Keeling Curve Lessons Notice that a) over the whole period, it's not straight, but an increasing curve; and b) there's lots of short-term variation, primarily a pronounced annual cycle due to northern hemisphere seasons.
Now if we didn't have increasing anthropogenic CO2, wouldn't we be seeing that annual variation imposed on a straight (and flat) line? So it is with temperature: we have steadily increasing temperature due to anthropogenic CO2, imposed on natural variations from a multitude of causes. Thus picking out the CO2 signal from the rest is just a matter of statistics, if you're into math, or eyeballing any record of temperatures for the last century or so. Of course that requires the ability to see what is actually there, rather than what you want to see.
Or if temperature graphs don't do it for you, why not pay attention to plants? As for instance this, in recent news:
NASA Visible Earth: Northern Greening Or a multitude of other records, from Kyoto's cherry trees to USDA climate zones.