I haven't posted for a while, but it's good to see that I was right in my first post - the denialists running around like meat ants in a frenzy - very busy, very heated, but ultimately pointless.

Thank you Protagoras, squeers and qanda for pursuing the debate, but you must realise that you can't convince people who are so set in their ways that they refuse to read the references you send them.

Quote - "I actually don't have the time to read all 1,550,000 papers on the topic". Maybe one or two then?

Clownish, Leo Lane, Pericles et al are not going to be swayed by mere facts.

What's more, their behaviour actually bears out the primary contention of the original article!

Actually Loxton, despite my ‘pea-brainedness’ ;-) I engage with Pericles because I think he’s genuine in his uncertainty about AGW. Besides, I have come to respect his views on other topics – whether I agree with them or not isn't really relevant here.

If other people can get anything out of the links then that is great but I agree, some people will never be swayed, because of their entrenched ideological or religious beliefs (Boazy and runner come to mind).

As to the original article, it’s worthwhile reading again – sorta puts things into perspective.

Leo Lane you keep asserting only 5 scientist assert AGW is happening! (paraphrased for brevity!
Please discount each of the following;
P. H. Gleick,* R. M. Adams, R. M. Amasino, E. Anders, D. J. Anderson, W. W. Anderson, L. E. Anselin, M. K. Arroyo, B. Asfaw, F. J. Ayala, A. Bax, A. J. Bebbington, G. Bell, M. V. L. Bennett, J. L. Bennetzen, M. R. Berenbaum, O. B. Berlin, P. J. Bjorkman, E. Blackburn, J. E. Blamont, M. R. Botchan, J. S. Boyer, E. A. Boyle, D. Branton, S. P. Briggs, W. R. Briggs, W. J. Brill, R. J. Britten, W. S. Broecker, J. H. Brown, P. O. Brown, A. T. Brunger, J. Cairns, Jr., D. E. Canfield, S. R. Carpenter, J. C. Carrington, A. R. Cashmore, J. C. Castilla, A. Cazenave, F. S. Chapin, III, A. J. Ciechanover, D. E. Clapham, W. C. Clark, R. N. Clayton, M. D. Coe, E. M. Conwell, E. B. Cowling, R. M Cowling, C. S. Cox, R. B. Croteau, D. M. Crothers, P. J. Crutzen, G. C. Daily, G. B. Dalrymple, J. L. Dangl, S. A. Darst, D. R. Davies, M. B. Davis, P. V. de Camilli, C. Dean, R. S. Defries, J. Deisenhofer, D. P. Delmer, E. F. Delong, D. J. Derosier, T. O. Diener, R. Dirzo, J. E. Dixon, M. J. Donoghue, R. F. Doolittle, T. Dunne, P. R. Ehrlich, S. N. Eisenstadt, T. Eisner, K. A. Emanuel, S. W. Englander, W. G. Ernst, P. G. Falkowski, G. Feher, J. A. Ferejohn, A. Fersht, E. H. Fischer, R. Fischer, K. V. Flannery, J. Frank, P. A. Frey, I. Fridovich, C. Frieden, D. J. Futuyma, W. R. Gardner, C. J. R. Garrett, W. Gilbert, R. B. Goldberg, W. H. Goodenough, C. S. Goodman, M. Goodman, P. Greengard, S. Hake, G. Hammel, S. Hanson, S. C. Harrison, S. R. Hart, D. L. Hartl, R. Haselkorn, K. Hawkes, J. M. Hayes, B. Hille, T. Hökfelt, J. S. House, M. Hout, D. M. Hunten, I. A. Izquierdo, A. T.

cont...

cont...
Jagendorf, D. H. Janzen, R. Jeanloz, C. S. Jencks, W. A. Jury, H. R. Kaback, T. Kailath, P. Kay, S. A. Kay, D. Kennedy, A. Kerr, R. C.Kessler, G. S. Khush, S. W. Kieffer, P. V. Kirch, K. Kirk, M. G. Kivelson, J. P. Klinman, A. Klug, L. Knopoff, H. Kornberg, J. E. Kutzbach, J. C. Lagarias, K. Lambeck, A. Landy, C. H. Langmuir, B. A. Larkins, X. T. Le Pichon, R. E. Lenski, E. B. Leopold, S. A. Levin, M. Levitt, G. E. Likens, J. Lippincott-Schwartz, L. Lorand, C. O. Lovejoy, M. Lynch, A. L. Mabogunje, T. F. Malone, S. Manabe, J. Marcus, D. S. Massey, J. C. McWilliams, E. Medina, H. J. Melosh, D. J. Meltzer, C. D. Michener, E. L. Miles, H. A. Mooney, P. B. Moore, F. M. M. Morel, E. S. Mosley-Thompson, B. Moss, W. H. Munk, N. Myers, G. B.

cont...

Nair, J. Nathans, E. W. Nester, R. A. Nicoll, R. P. Novick, J. F. O'Connell, P. E. Olsen, N. D. Opdyke, G. F. Oster, E. Ostrom, N. R. Pace, R. T. Paine, R. D. Palmiter, J. Pedlosky, G. A. Petsko, G. H. Pettengill, S. G. Philander, D. R. Piperno, T. D. Pollard, P. B. Price, Jr., P. A. Reichard, B. F. Reskin, R. E. Ricklefs, R. L. Rivest, J. D. Roberts, A. K. Romney, M. G. Rossmann, D. W. Russell, W.
J. Rutter, J. A. Sabloff, R. Z. Sagdeev, M. D. Sahlins, A. Salmond, J. R. Sanes, R. Schekman, J. Schellnhuber, D. W. Schindler, J. Schmitt, S. H. Schneider, V. L. Schramm, R. R. Sederoff, C. J. Shatz, F. Sherman, R. L. Sidman, K. Sieh, E. L. Simons, B. H. Singer, M. F. Singer, B. Skyrms, N. H. Sleep, B. D. Smith, S. H. Snyder, R. R. Sokal, C. S. Spencer, T. A. Steitz, K. B. Strier, T. C. Südhof, S. S. Taylor, J. Terborgh, D. H. Thomas, L. G. Thompson, R. T. Tjian, M. G. Turner, S. Uyeda, J. W. Valentine, J. S. Valentine, J. L. van Etten, K. E. van Holde, M. Vaughan, S. Verba, P. H. von Hippel, D. B. Wake, A. Walker, J. E. Walker, E. B. Watson, P. J. Watson, D. Weigel, S. R. Wessler, M. J. West-Eberhard, T. D. White, W. J. Wilson, R. V. Wolfenden, J. A. Wood, G. M. Woodwell, H. E. Wright, Jr., C. Wu, C. Wunsch, M. L. Zoback
All are members of the US Acadaemy of Science, some have PhD's (you might like to look up what that means about their credibility, training and expertise) and other than the 250 of them involved in a
conspiracy, they all support AGW and are capital VERY concerned about people such as yourself who are misleading the public!

Feel free to address each members lack of qualification!

For those few readers of OLO who are genuinely interested in "debate" please visit
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/689

and make your own assessment.

PeterK I did read that and my assessment is that it is the usual whinging by a group who have found their "authority" is not being taken for granted and thus they feel threatened.

Any open letter that then denounces people who question them as "deniers!", is short of facts as usual and long on emotion.

"For those few readers of OLO who are genuinely interested in "debate" please visit.." so where's the debate, is this letter about debate Peter?

Certainly it's just a long whine .. no debate, the only other party mentioned gets no respect and are denounced and insulted - do you understand debating? Debating is when 2 sides get to have a say, in an atmosphere of respect, this is a complaint.

Just another attempt to smear a large portion of the population, well that's going to help isn't it - do you really there there is a small group of skeptics? Closer to half the population, maybe more now.

It's another hysterical doom laden threat to humanity that if we don't respect the superior and all knowing knowledge of a small group, the world will end.

It will not end, it will go on, the climate will change as it always has and your lack of understanding and the scientific communities lack of knowledge will not prevent it. The greatest folly of the age is fools who think they can predict the future and the ones who think they can re-engineer our planet to the way they want it.