Kling on Global Warming Mike Rappaport

Arnold Kling writes the following on global warming:

Basically, I believe that the best evidence for global warming isglobal warming. That is, the rise in observed temperatures is the mostimportant data.

That rise began around 1900, and amounted to about 0.3 degreescentigrade by 1940. Temperatures leveled off until 1980, and since thenthey are up 0.4 degrees centigrade.

Much, much more of the human activity that would cause globalwarming has occurred in the last 20 years than took place between 1900and 1940. Also, much, much more of the greenhouse gas layer on earthconsists of either water vapor or pre-industrial levels of carbondioxide.

Thus, the link between human activity and global warming depends noton simple, obvious relationships in the data. It depends entirely onclimate models of how these tiny (relative to the overall volume ofgreenhouse gases) human activities produce “feedback loops” on therest. They are models of how much less than one percent of a phenomenonaffects the entire phenomenon. They are much more faith-based thanempirical.(my italics). 

The italicized portion (italics mine, not Kling’s) captures why I continue to be skeptical about the UN models on global warming.  That, and the political way that the consensus documents are established and the way that the advocates do their best to keep the italicized information from the public. 

I am not a scientist and so I can’t judge the science.  But I do understand something about the incentives, ideology, and political pressure that can help to establish a consensus in favor of global warming.