a global warming event that took place around 55 million years ago when temperatures rose by 5° C (9° F) to 8° C (14.4° F), are similar to current warming trends. ??? Is that a joke ??? From circa 1880 the "mean global temp" (whatevet it means...) is les than 1°C acording to IPCC. From 1998 the "global trend" is near 0°C, whenas carbon dioyde emissions continue growing, and so, "inconveninetly", the global Temp should grow at least +4°C for the next decades ??? Help Al Gore !!!

I agree with watersworm. Despite years of evidence pointing away from CAGW (i.e. flat temperature trend against measured increases in atmospheric CO2 levels), we still insist that the burning of fossil fuels is forcing the earth to warm. At this point, those who argue that the science is settled and proceed unhindered in their cries of alarm seem to be either willfully ignorant or operating under a hidden agenda.
We know the earth has warmed and cooled over the centuries and millennia. In fact, the medieval warm period and little ice age are recent enough in human memory that any serious scientific investigation into "climate change" cannot help but reference them.
And thus, the primary assumption on which the entire CAGW theory is premised, that CO2 forcing is the only explanation for the rapid rise in temperature, can be invalidated. Once this assumption is removed, we're free to consider the vast benefits of releasing the stored up (solar) energy and CO2 that's been locked away in fossil fuels for time immemorial. More importantly, we can devote the time and resources, currently being squandered on dubious clean energy and climate change projects, to real humanitarian and ecological/environmental concerns.
rip

*"the effects of global warming (which is occurring faster than previously thought) "*
Presumably you are unaware of the 18+ year "pause/hiatus/plateau" in global temperature that is currently the object of 66 (at the last count) papers by such pre-eminent scientists as Mann and Trenberth making somewhat desperate attempts to account for it and that has totally confounded all the climate modellers.

This isn't even a scientific debate anymore, it's devolved into political rhetoric, perpetuated by a general public that isn't scientifically critical, and supported by a scientific community driven by research dollars.
Still not as bad as eugenics, but it ranks right up there with the stupidest things scientists have tried to legitimize for their own gain. Study the history of science .. happens all the time.
How can NO statistical/scientific global warming in 18 years 4 months be compared to something that happened 50+ million years ago?
Pure science is such a great thing and it's so sad see it distorted in this way.

I love when thing I independently calcuate are the same figures scientist come to, 9-12F(I calced) 9-14.4F(prior precedence).

One thing that is a fact; sense the earth was a mass of molten rock, fire and smoke the climate has been changing. It will I suspect keep on changing as the earths core continues to cool and the sun eventually burns out.
Put that climate money to better use and build toward colonies in space.
Lets not forget about that Asteroid heading toward earth...

Both sides are being suckered into the wrong argument. Whether or not climate is changing, and what, if anything, is the cause, is all irrelevant. We are 7.3 billion insignificant little arrogant pests, that are not going to significantly change anything about the way we live, which makes the entire climate debate nothing more than hot air.

55 billion years the continents were not in the same place as they are now. Therefore ocean currents were very different.

We know so much more about the stock market than we do about the climate of this planet. Who will predict the value of the market or individual stocks for a week from now? We bet on it but no one is predicting an exact figure. Yet, the AGW advocates predict temperature increase a century from now.

There are some very sad, clueless people on here.
"What if it's all a hoax and we made the world a better place for nothing?"