Are all scientsts are mad? Well maybe 5% .....

A new study from the Met Office Hadley Centre, Edinburgh University, Melbourne University and Victoria University in Canada has concluded that there was an “increasingly remote possibility” that the sceptics were right that human activities were having no discernible impact. There was a less than 5% likelihood that natural variations in climate were responsible for the changes saying that the “fingerprints” of human influence on the climate can be detected not only in rising temperatures but also in the saltiness of the oceans, rising humidity, changes in rainfall and the shrinking of Arctic Sea ice at the rate of 600,000 sq km a decade confirming that man-made emissions were having an impact on even the remotest continent. The study found that since 1980, the average global temperature had increased by about 0.5C and that the Earth was continuing to warm at the rate of about 0.16C a decade. This trend is reflected in measurements from the oceans. Warmer temperatures had led to more evaporation from the surface, most noticeably in the sub-tropical Atlantic. As a result, the sea was getting saltier. Evaporation in turn affected humidity and rainfall. The atmosphere was getting more humid, as climate models had predicted, and amplifying the water cycle. This meant that more rain was falling in high and low latitudes and less in tropical and sub-tropical regions.Mind you, climate change sceptics still have the data controversies at the  University of East Anglia and the IPCC 'glaciers not melting' story to keep themselves happy with, and a 5% chance that they are right ...... but even if they ARE right – why not swap to sustainable non polluting energy sources anyway, why rely on imported oil, or coal, or gas? What soveriegn nation doesn’t want to be self sufficient and resillient, economically sound, safe and secure? Who does benefit from a high carbon economy …….. oh yes, the oil, coal and gas industries  …..Stories to cheer up worried sceptics can be found at  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/15/phil-jones-lost-weather-data  and http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/06/ipcc-admits-they-could-be-wrong-about-humans-causing-global-warming/ and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245636/Glacier-scientists-says-knew-data-verified.html  and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8511670.stm.